Abstract:

Objective To investigate the clinical roles of serum 12 cytokines [interleukin（IL）-1β，IL-2，IL-4，IL-5，IL-6，IL-8，IL-10，IL-12，IL-17，interferon-gamma（INF-γ），interferon-alpha（IFN-α），tumor necrosis factor-alpha（TNF-α）] determinations in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods From May 2021 to May 2023，67 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer（ovarian cancer group），22 patients with benign ovarian tumors（ovarian cysts，cystadenomas and so on）（benign group） and 21 healthy subjects（healthy control group） were enrolled from Shanghai Cancer Center of Fudan University. The clinical data of all the subjects were collected，and serum levels of 12 cytokines were determined. All the patients were followed up until September 1st，2023. The survival of all the patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier curve. Results Compared with healthy control group，serum levels of IL-5，IL-8，IL-10，IL-17，TNF-α and IFN-γ were decreased in ovarian cancer group（P<0.05），and the level of TNF-α in ovarian cancer group was lower than that in benign group（P<0.05）. There was no statistical significance in the other cytokines among the 3 groups（P>0.05）. The positive rate of IL-6 was the highest in ovarian cancer group（85.1%），followed by IL-10（49.3%） and IL-8（40.3%），and the positive rates of the other cytokines were <40%. The negative rates of IL-4，TNF-α and IFN-γ were higher than positive rates in patients with carbohydrate antigen（CA）125 and human epididymis protein 4（HE4）-positive epithelial ovarian cancer（P<0.05）. The positive rates of serum T helper cell（Th）2 cytokines（IL-4，IL-6，IL-10） were higher than those of Th1 cytokines（IL-2，TNF-α，IFN-γ） in patients with advanced the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics（FIGO） stage，serous histological type，ascites and lymphatic metastasis（P<0.05）. There was statistical significance in the positive rate of Th1 cytokines among different FIGO stages（P=0.001）. However，no statistical significance was found in the positive rates of Th1 and Th2 cytokines for epithelial ovarian cancer patients with different clinical characteristics（P>0.05）. The progression-free survival（PFS） of the positive group of IL-2，IL-6 and IL-10 was shorter than that of the corresponding negative group（Log-rank χ² values were 3.567，4.463 and 3.997，P=0.046，0.013 and 0.035，respectively）. The PFS in the positive group of IL-17 was longer than that in the corresponding negative group（Log-rank χ² value was 3.659，P=0.043），but there was no statistical significance in PFS between the positive group and the negative group of the other cytokines（P>0.05）. Conclusions Cytokine determination is helpful to monitor inflammatory status and immune function in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer，and has a certain value in judging disease progression and evaluating prognosis.

Key words: Cytokine, Epithelial ovarian cancer, Immune dysfunction