Proinflammatory cytokines: an insight into pancreatic oncogenesis

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease, being one of the five leading death causes among oncologic patients. It is usually diagnosed late due to the paucity of clinical signs, and the current therapy means have limited success. One of the documented risk factors for developing pancreatic adenocarcinoma is chronic pancreatitis. It is postulated that a chronic inflammatory disease has a potential of evolving toward neoplasia, a fact that could account for a percentage of the pancreatic cancers. Starting from this assumption, we intended to analyze the serum reflection of some molecules with proinflammatory roles, and compare them in healthy individuals, in patients with chronic pancreatitis and with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Additionally, we performed a biochemical and hematological assessment of the study groups, and compared the results with the immunological parameters analyzed in the same subjects. We found significantly higher levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha and Interleukin 6 in chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic adenocarcinoma sera (with higher levels in the pancreatitis group than in the cancer group), compared to healthy controls. Additionally, we found significantly higher levels of interleukin 8 and Macrophage Inflammatory Protein-3 alpha in pancreatic cancer, compared to chronic pancreatitis and controls. We also identified numerous correlations between the abovementioned cytokines/chemokines and biochemical parameters, not very much studied before. Our results plead for a pathogenic role of chronic inflammation in pancreatic carcinogenesis, thus offering a potential tool for earliy diagnose or targets for therapy.