Clinical significance of interleukin-6 in diagnosis of lung, oral, esophageal, and gall bladder carcinomas.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic inflammation predisposes to cancer. Cytokines play an essential role in cancer pathogenesis. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that enables growth and differentiation of tumors. The effects of IL-6 are mediated by signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3). STAT3 deficiency reduced tumor incidence and growth while STAT3 hyperactivation has an opposite effect; also it negatively regulates p53 gene. IL-6/STAT3 signaling is crucial in carcinogenesis linked to inflammation. Increased IL-6 levels are observed in cancer. Studies investigating the role of IL-6 is limited. AIM: This study aims at determining IL-6 levels in lung, oral, esophageal, and gallbladder cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Subjects consisted of 175 patients with lung, oral, gall bladder, and esophageal cancers. The patients included 68 females and 107 males with an average age of 52 years. Fifty healthy individuals served as controls. IL-6 was detected by electrochemiluminescent immunoassay principle. RESULTS: IL-6 values were determined in 175 (21 lung, 55 oral, 17 esophageal and 82 gallbladder) cancer patients. Of these, 147/175 (18 lung, 43 oral, 13 esophageal and 73 gallbladder) cancer patients (84%) showed higher IL-6 levels as compared to control group (normal range: <7 pg/ml). CONCLUSION: This indicates a significant correlation between IL-6 overexpression and cancer development, highlighting the significance of IL-6 in oral, lung, esophageal, and gallbladder carcinomas. IL-6 may be used as a tumor marker for cancer diagnosis. It may be a clinically significant predictor and may represent a target for cancer treatment. However, to definitely conclude this, further extensive studies would be required.

Screening of the CFTR gene in Indian patients.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) has been observed to be far more common in India, than was previously thought. Variability in CF clinical symptoms among individuals, results in diagnostic errors. Also, CF diagnostic facilities are not available at all diagnostic centers across India. Sweat test (gold standard for CF diagnosis) has some limitations. Mutation analysis, therefore, would be useful in detecting the mutant CF alleles in Indian patients. This study, aimed at identifying common CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mutations, to develop a molecular diagnostic test in Indian patients, and establish genotype-phenotype correlation. Mutation identification was performed by single stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) screening, followed by DNA sequencing of regions with an abnormal SSCP pattern. ∆F508 accounts for about 53% of CF alleles. A substantial proportion of these patients have rare and/or novel mutations. Eight novel and 12 known polymorphisms were also identified. Considering the high percentage of rare/novel mutations, along with ethnic history of Indian population, we can speculate that the remaining uncharacterized mutations might also not be prevalent mutations. The total number of CF disease-causing mutations in Indian patients is very large. Thus, DNA-based population screening will be complicated, and an indirect genetic diagnosis (screening entire gene) would be necessary to characterize all mutations.