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Published on: March 14, 2019
The relationship between circulating interleukin-6 and carcinoembryonic antigen in patients with colorectal cancer
Tohru Nakagoe1, Takashi Tsuji, Terumitsu Sawai
1First Department of Surgery, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan. nakagoe@net.nagasaki-u.ac.jp
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to clarify whether or not preoperative serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) correlate with well-established prognostic variables (serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), stage, histological grade, lymphatic and venous invasion) in colorectal cancer patients.
Patients And Methods:
Serum levels of IL-6 and CEA were determined in 62 patients who underwent resection of colorectal cancer. The patients were divided into two groups based on a selected cut-off value: high and low IL-6 and CEA groups.
Results:
The median serum level of IL-6 in colorectal cancer patients was significantly higher than the median level in normal controls (p = 0.0014). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a high serum level of CEA is an independent predictor for a high serum level of IL-6 (odds ratio, 4.10; p = 0.046).
Conclusion:
A high serum level of IL-6 is significantly associated with a high serum level of CEA in preoperative colorectal cancer patients.
