Serum interleukin-12 levels in patients with gastric cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the immunological status of patients with gastric cancer before surgery, we investigated the relationship between serum interleukin-12 (IL-12) levels and clinicopathological factors.


METHODS
We measured serum IL-12 levels in 127 patients with gastric cancer and 35 healthy controls, by a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using the Human IL-12 +p40 Immunoassay kit.


RESULTS
The serum IL-12 levels in the patients with gastric cancer were significantly higher than those of the healthy controls (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in disease stage or gross appearance among the cancer groups, but the serum IL-12 levels in patients with T4 disease were significantly lower than those in patients with T1, T2, or T3 (P < 0.01). There were no significant differences in serum IL-12 levels between patients with and those without lymph node, liver, or peritoneal metastasis. The serum IL-12 levels in patients with distant metastasis were significantly lower than those in patients without distant metastasis (P < 0.02). There were no significant differences in the serum IL-12 levels according to classification by histopathological findings. Analysis with the linear correlation coefficient showed no significant correlation between serum IL-12 and serum carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9, CA 72-4, alpha-fetoprotein, or immunosuppressive acidic protein. However, there was a significant relationship between serum IL-12 levels and soluble IL-2 receptor levels (r = 0.53, P < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Serum IL-12 levels in patients with far-advanced gastric cancer were significantly lower than those in patients with less-advanced gastric cancer. This is because macrophages in patients with far-advanced cancer would be hectic and unable to produce sufficient IL-12.
Murakami
Saburo
S
Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical School, 38 Morohongo, Moroyama-machi, Iruma-gun, Saitama 350-0495, Japan.
Okubo
Katsuhiko
K
Tsuji
Yoshitaka
Y
Sakata
Hideto
H
Hamada
Setsuo
S
Hirayama
Renzo
R
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005743:Gastrectomy / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000097:blood*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018664:Interleukin-12