Lack of interleukin-10 expression could predict poor outcome in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Interleukin-10 (IL-10) may play an important role in controlling tumor growth and metastasis. Some reports have shown that IL-10 can be a potent inhibitor of tumor growth, but others suggest that IL-10 expression by the tumor is an adverse prognostic factor. Because normal bronchial epithelial cells constitutively produce IL-10, we decided to test the prognostic value of IL-10 in a well-defined population of patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated in a single institution.


METHODS
Using immunohistochemical analysis, we retrospectively analyzed IL-10 expression in specimens from 138 patients with completely resected clinical/radiographic stage I NSCLC for whom clinical follow-up data were available.


RESULTS
IL-10 expression was retained (IL-10 labeling index > or = 10%) in 94 patients (68.1%) and lost in 44 patients (31.9%). The duration of overall, disease-specific, and disease-free survival in the 44 patients lacking IL-10 expression was worse than in the 94 patients with IL-10 expression (P = 0.08, 0.02, and 0.05, respectively; Log-rank test). Interestingly, IL-10 expression was observed more frequently in tumors with squamous cell histology than in tumors of other histological subtypes (P = 0.04; chi(2) test). Multivariate analysis confirmed the independent prognostic value of IL-10 expression for disease-specific survival (P = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
Lack of IL-10 expression by the tumor was associated with a significantly worse outcome of early stage NSCLC. The mechanisms underlying this clinically and biologically important finding need to be further explored.
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA.
Jean-Charles
JC
Soria
Chulso
C
Moon
Bonnie L
BL
Kemp
Diane D
DD
Liu
Lei
L
Feng
Ximing
X
Tang
Yoon-Soo
YS
Chang
Li
L
Mao
Fadlo R
FR
Khuri
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood; D001984:Bronchial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016753:Interleukin-10