CLINICAL-SIGNIFICANCE OF ERYTHROSEDIMENTATION RATE IN CANCER IN RELATION TO CYTOKINE PRODUCTION - CORRELATION WITH HIGH IL-6 AND LOW IL-2 BLOOD-CONCENTRATIONS

Despite its well documented unfavourable prognostic significance in se veral human diseases, including cancer, the cytokinic mechanisms respo nsible for an increased erythrosedimentation rate (ESR) still remain t o be better analyzed and defined The recent possibility to measure cyt okine concentrations in the blood of patients has allowed us to explor e the possible relation between ESR values and endogenous cytokine sec retions. This preliminary study was performed to evaluate the relation ship between ESR values and serum levels of IL-2 and IL-6, which repre sent the most important cytokines responsible for the activation and t he suppression, respectively, of host anticancer immune reaction. The study included 33 consecutive solid tumor patients, 22 of whom showed distant organ metastases. Abnormally high values of ESR were present i n 21 patients, including 18/22 metastatic patients and 3/11 nonmetasta tic patients. Patients with elevated values of ESR showed significantl y higher mean levels of IL-6 and significantly lower mean concentratio ns of IL-2 with respect to those found in patients with normal ESR val ues. These results would show that cancer-related increase in ESR valu es is associated with low levels of IL-2 and high levels of IL-6. Sinc e IL-2 plays an essential role in the anticancer immunity and IL-6 may suppress the antitumor immune defenses, the evidence of low levels of IL-2 and high values of IL-6 in cancer patients with increased ESR va lues would explain the unfavourable prognostic significance of high ES R values in human neoplasms.