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Psychosocial factors and interleukin-6 among women with advanced ovarian cancer
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Psychosocial factors and interleukin-6 among women with advanced ovarian cancer

Erin S Costanzo, Susan K Lutgendorf, Anil K Sood, Barrie Anderson, Joel Sorosky and David M Lubaroff
Cancer, Vol.104(2), pp.305-313
07/15/2005
DOI: 10.1002/cncr.21147
PMID: 15954082
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.21147View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Relations among psychological stress, depression, social support, and interleukin-6 (IL-6, a proinflammatory cytokine) have been documented in humans and animals. Because elevated IL-6 is associated with a poorer prognosis among ovarian cancer patients and has been implicated in the metastasis of ovarian cancer, the current study examined relations between psychosocial factors and IL-6 among women with advanced-stage ovarian cancer. Sixty-one ovarian cancer patients completed assessments of social support, distressed mood, and quality of life before surgery. Peripheral blood was drawn preoperatively, and the plasma was assayed for IL-6. Ascites samples were also assayed for IL-6 for a subset of patients. Both IL-6 levels and distressed mood were elevated among patients. After statistically adjusting effects of age and disease stage, social attachment was associated with lower levels of IL-6 in peripheral blood (P = 0.03), whereas poorer health-related quality of life was associated with higher IL-6 (P values ranged from 0.01 to 0.03 on different measures). This pattern of relations was also found in the ascites. Moreover, IL-6 levels in peripheral blood plasma correlated significantly with IL-6 in the ascites (P < 0.001), suggesting that peripheral IL-6 reflects IL-6 levels at the site of the tumor. Results suggest that social support may play a protective role with respect to IL-6 elevations, and IL-6 may be an independent marker of health-related quality of life among ovarian cancer patients. Processes involving IL-6 represent possible pathways by which behavioral factors may contribute to disease outcomes among women with ovarian cancer.
Psychology Quality of Life Ovarian Neoplasms - psychology Humans Middle Aged Ovarian Neoplasms - pathology Social Support Ovarian Neoplasms - blood Ascitic Fluid - metabolism Interleukin-6 - blood Stress, Physiological - blood Female Interleukin-6 - metabolism Depression - blood

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