Serum interleukin-10 levels in patients with advanced gastrointestinal malignancies.
BACKGROUND
Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a cytokine with immunosuppressive properties. In this study, the authors investigated the prognostic significance of IL-10 levels in the sera of 58 patients with advanced gastric or colorectal carcinoma.


METHODS
IL-10 serum levels were measured before chemotherapy, on completion of chemotherapy, and at follow-up by means of a commercially available enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay kit. The results then were analyzed in comparison with other prognostic variables and a model predicting overall survival (OS) and time to disease progression (TTP) was generated.


RESULTS
Elevated levels of serum IL-10 were found in carcinoma patients compared with healthy controls (19.6 +/- 6.8 pg/mL vs. 9.2 +/- 1.5 pg/mL; P < 0.0001), with those patients with metastatic disease showing significantly higher levels than patients with undisseminated disease (21.9 +/- 6. 7 pg/mL vs. 15.5 +/- 3.6 pg/mL; P = 0.0003). Retrospective analysis of prechemotherapy IL-10 serum levels showed a significant difference between responders and nonresponders (15.8 +/- 2.5 pg/mL vs. 21.6 +/- 7.6 pg/mL; P < 0.0001). Moreover, a further significant increase in IL-10 serum levels was observed in nonresponders at the end of therapy (21.6 +/- 7.6 pg/mL prechemotherapy vs. 31.3 +/- 11.6 pg/mL postchemotherapy; P < 0.0001) whereas no significant differences were observed in responders. Using univariate analysis, both OS and TTP were shown to be affected by the median pathologic levels of IL-10; multivariate analysis related to OS and TTP identified performance status and IL-10 serum level as the relevant prognostic factors, respectively. Finally, stepwise regression analysis identified IL-10 serum level and metastases as the prognostic factors related to both OS and TTP.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the current study show that measurement of pretreatment serum levels of IL-10 is of independent prognostic utility in patients with advanced gastrointestinal carcinoma and may be useful for the detection of disease progression.
De Vita
F
F
Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, "F. Magrassi," Second University of Naples School of Medicine, Naples, Italy.
Orditura
M
M
Galizia
G
G
Romano
C
C
Infusino
S
S
Auriemma
A
A
Lieto
E
E
Catalano
G
G
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D016753:Interleukin-10