title: IL-17A Levels in the Sera of Patients with Gastric Cancer Show Limited Elevation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inflammation plays a major role in the development and progression of gastric and other gastrointestinal tumors. The IL-17 family of cytokines has been under investigation as targets of immunotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the levels of IL-17A inflammatory cytokine in the sera of 57 patients with gastric cancer (GC) and 90 healthy age/sex matched controls using ELISA methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In only 5 (8.8%) of the patients' sera was IL-17A detectable. No IL-17A was apparent in the sera of healthy controls. The maximum concentration of IL-17A in patients was 7.004 pg/ml. Vascular and lymphatic invasions were only seen in one of the 5 positive cases. Although all of them were in the age group >60 years, no correlation was seen between age and IL-17A level. These results are somewhat different from our findings for colorectal cancer (CRC) in the same population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is possible that the inflammopathology of CRC and GC are rather different, at least in Fars, a southern province of Iran.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran E-mail : mdoroud@sums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Malek-Hosseini
authors.forename: Marziye
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taherinejad
authors.forename: Mahyar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malekzadeh
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghaderi
authors.forename: Mehrnoosh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doroudchi
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: C508717:IL17A protein, human; D020381:Interleukin-17