The study showed that IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α levels correlated with clinical disease stage and lymph node metastasis as well as with ER and HER2 antigen expression.
Expression of IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly increased compared with controls in both serum and tissue; IL-6 and TNF-α levels were positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis; IL-6 and TNF-α levels were negatively correlated with E-cadherin level and were positively correlated with N-cadherin and vimentin levels.
The degree of differentiation, local invasion, lymph node metastasis and clinical stage were significantly associated with the mRNA expression levels of IL‑6, Twist and E‑cadherin.
Both a high number of IL-6-positive cells and a high number of IL-6-positive cells, plus low IL-12p40 expression were shown to be clinicopathological parameters independent of lymph node metastasis, parametrial involvement and Sedlis score (P=0.009 and P=0.007, respectively).
This investigation confirmed that levels of expression of IL-6 protein and VEGF-C mRNA in OSCC tissues were significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis in patients with OSCC, as assessed by immunohistochemical analysis and real-time quantitative RT-PCR.
In contrast, preoperative levels of IL-6 and IL-6sR, but not postoperative levels, were significantly associated with tumor volume, prostatectomy Gleason sum, and metastases to lymph nodes.
Patients with a high-level expression of IL-6 had significantly greater incidences of lymph node metastasis and a larger increase in serum C-reactive protein than those without it.