Zeitschrift für onkologische Forschung und Behandlung

Abstrakt

The Relationship between IL-6 and Nutritional Status in Patients with Gastrointestinal Tumors

Valéria Jósa, Valentin Brodszky, Zsombor Zrubka, Attila Zaránd, Tünde Mezei, Zsuzsanna Szilasi, Adrienne Fehér, Iván Igaz, Krisztián Somlai, Keresztély Merkel and Zsolt Baranyai

Introduction: IL-6 is an essential factor in inflammatory processes; its level has been found to be elevated in a variety of gastrointestinal tumors. Nearly 30% of IL-6 circulating in the blood is produced by adipose tissue; however, there are no clear data on whether its level changes in obese patients.
Material and method: We studied 127 patients with gastrointestinal tumors of different stages. IL-6 levels, white blood cell count (WBC), and hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration were determined in preoperative blood samples. BMI was determined with a calibrated calculator, before surgery. During the statistical analysis of the data, correlation was calculated using Spearman, Wilcoxon, and Pearson correlation coefficients.
Results: In patients with various gastrointestinal tumors, the level of circulating IL-6 was unrelated to BMI. This result was not influenced by hemoglobin concentration, or by white blood cell count.
Conclusion: In gastrointestinal tumors, IL-6 production by adipose tissue is negligible as compared with cytokine expression by the tumor and its environment.