Prognostic relevance olf soluble interleukin-2 receptors in patients with ovarian tumors

Soluble interleukin-2 receptors (sIL-2R) are measurable in the sera of pati ents with ovarian cancer and several other benign and malignant diseases. H owever, the function of these sIL-2R is still unclear. Since high levels of sIL-2R are thought to be an indicator of an activated immune system we inv estigated the correlation of sIL-2R concentration and prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. sIL-2R measurement was performed on the preoperative sera of 130 patients with benign, and 119 patients with malignant ovarian tumors . The IMMULITE(R) sIL-2R assay by DPC Biermann, Bad Nauheim, Germany was us ed. In ovarian cancer patients sIL-2R concentrations were significantly hig her than in those with benign tumors. By defining the 95(th) percentile of the sIL-2R concentration distribution in patients with benign diseases as t he cut-off (1200 U/ml) 35% of the ovarian cancer patients had elevated conc entrations. Concentrations of sIL-2R increased with FIGO stage. FIGO-III pa tients with highly elevated sIL-2R concentrations tended to have better pro gnosis than those with sIL-2R levels within normal range in contrast to FIG O IV patients. Since sIL-2R concentrations indicate an immunological activa tion in ovarian cancer patients our data give hints of the possible role of sIL-2R in the assessment of the risk of recurrence in ovarian cancer patie nts.