Decreased expression of interleukin-36α predicts poor prognosis in colorectal cancer patients

Interleukin-36α (IL-36α), previously designated as IL-1F6, has been found to have a pathogenic role in psoriasis. However, possible functions of IL-36α in cancer remain unclear. In present study, we investigate the possible role of interleukin-36α involved in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. IL-36α expression was detected in 345 colorectal cancer tissue samples by immunohistochemical staining, and its relation with clinicopathologic parameters and prognosis of colorectal cancer patients were analyzed. IL-36α was highly expressed in nearly half of all tested colorectal cancer patients. However, low expression level of IL-36α significantly correlated with larger tumor size and advanced TNM stage. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that low expression level of IL-36α resulted in a remarkably poor prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. Multivariate Cox's analysis revealed that the IL-36α expression level was a significant and independent prognostic factor for overall survival rate of colorectal cancer patients. Thus, our study may provide insight into the application of IL-36α as a novel predictor of prognosis and a potential therapeutic drug for colorectal cancer.