High plasma interleukin-6 levels associated with poor prognosis of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

作者：Shao Yu Yun; Lin Hang; Li Yong Shi; Lee Ying Hui; Chen Ho Min; Cheng Ann Lii^*; Hsu Chih Hung^*

来源：Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2017, 47(10): 949-953.

DOI：10.1093/jjco/hyx103

• biomarker
• hepatocellular carcinoma
• interleukin-6
• sorafenib
• prognosis

Purpose: Using an exploratory and a validation cohorts, we found that high pretreatment plasma IL-6 levels were associated with poor prognosis of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.Antiangiogenic therapy is crucial for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment. Interleukin (IL)-6 is an inflammatory response mediator that can promote angiogenesis. We explored its prognostic role in patients with advanced HCC.
Methods: We had two patient cohorts, both comprising patients who received sorafenib-containing therapy as the first-line treatment for advanced HCC. We explored the best cut point for pretreatment plasma IL-6 levels in the exploration cohort and then confirmed it in the validation cohort.
Results: In total, 55 and 73 patients constituted the exploration and validation cohorts, respectively. In the exploration cohort, a cut point of 4.28 pg/ml was the best for defining high and low IL-6 levels because it could most effectively differentiate overall survival (OS). On application of this cut point to the validation cohort, patients with high plasma IL-6 levels, compared with patients with low IL-6 levels, exhibited significantly poorer OS (median, 8.0 vs 13.9 months, P = 0.031) but similar progression-free survival or treatment response. After adjusting for patient demographics and tumor characteristics, a high plasma IL-6 level remained an independent predictor of poor OS (hazard ratio 2.594, P = 0.005).
Conclusion: High pretreatment plasma IL-6 levels were associated with poor prognosis of patients with advanced HCC.

• 出版日期2017-10