title: Increased serum levels of interleukin-15 correlate with negative prognostic factors in extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma.
abstract: Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a proinflammatory cytokine involved in the proliferation, survival, and activation of multiple lymphocyte lineages. However, the prognostic significance of IL-15 for extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma (ENKTL) has not been well established. We retrospectively analyzed 112 patients with newly diagnosed ENKTL. Baseline serum IL-15 levels were determined using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Patients with high IL-15 (>3.94 mg/L) at diagnosis tended to have more adverse clinical features. Patients with low IL-15 (≤3.94 mg/L) at diagnosis had better progression-free survival (PFS; P < 0.001) and overall survival (OS; P < 0.001) and achieved higher complete remission rates (P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed independent prognostic factors for PFS. Similarly, high IL-15 levels (P = 0.009), no CR after chemotherapy (P = 0.001), Stage III/IV (P = 0.048), and elevated serum EBV-DNA (P = 0.038) were independently predictive of shorter OS. Using the International Prognostic Index or Korean Prognostic Index for nasal NK/T cell lymphoma, the majority of patients were in the low-risk category (with no or one adverse factor). Serum IL-15 was helpful to differentiate the low-risk patients with different survival outcomes (P < 0.001).Our data suggest that serum IL-15 at diagnosis is a novel, powerful predictor of prognosis for ENKTL, which suggests a role for IL-15 in the pathogenesis of this disease and offers new insight into potential therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jia-Yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Cheng-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Meng-Yuan
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jing-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi-Rong
authors.initials: QR
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000097:blood*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D054391:Lymphoma, Extranodal NK-T-Cell / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C569274:IL15 protein, human; D019409:Interleukin-15