Logo image
Back
Circulating interleukin-6 is associated with disease progression, but not cachexia in pancreatic cancer
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Circulating interleukin-6 is associated with disease progression, but not cachexia in pancreatic cancer

Mitchell L Ramsey, Erin Talbert, Daniel Ahn, Tanios Bekaii-Saab, Niharika Badi, P. Mark Bloomston, Darwin L Conwell, Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, Mary Dillhoff, Matthew R Farren, …
Pancreatology : official journal of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) ... [et al.], Vol.19(1), pp.80-87
01/2019
DOI: 10.1016/j.pan.2018.11.002
PMCID: PMC6613190
PMID: 30497874
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/6613190View
Open Access

Abstract

Cachexia is a wasting syndrome characterized by involuntary loss of >5% body weight due to depletion of adipose and skeletal muscle mass. In cancer, the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is considered a mediator of cachexia and a potential biomarker, but the relationship between IL-6, weight loss, and cancer stage is unknown. In this study we sought to evaluate IL-6 as a biomarker of cancer cachexia while accounting for disease progression. We retrospectively studied 136 subjects with biopsy-proven pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), considering the high prevalence of cachexia is this population. Clinical data were abstracted from subjects in all cancer stages, and plasma IL-6 levels were measured using a multiplex array and a more sensitive ELISA. Data were evaluated with univariate comparisons, including Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and multivariate Cox survival models. On multiplex, a total of 43 (31.4%) subjects had detectable levels of plasma IL-6, while by ELISA all subjects had detectable IL-6 levels. We found that increased plasma IL-6 levels, defined as detectable for multiplex and greater than median for ELISA, were not associated with weight loss at diagnosis, but rather with the presence of metastasis (p < 0.001 for multiplex and p = 0.007 for ELISA). Further, while >5% weight loss was not associated with worse survival, increased plasma IL-6 by either methodology was. Circulating IL-6 levels do not correlate with cachexia (when defined by weight loss), but rather with advanced cancer stage. This suggests that IL-6 may mediate wasting, but should not be considered a diagnostic biomarker for PDAC-induced cachexia.
 Biomarker Inflammation Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Weight loss

Details

Metrics

11 Record Views
33 Times Cited - Web of Science
Logo image