Interleukin-8, a promising predictor for prognosis of pancreatic cancer

AIM： To investigate the value of interleukin-8 （IL-8）, a pro-inflammatory chemokine, in predicting the prognosis of pancreatic cancer. METHODS： Expression of IL-8 and its receptor CXCR1 was assessed by immunohistochemistry in pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis samples. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect the serum IL-8 levels in pancreatic cancer patients. Human pancreatic cancer tissues were heterotopically transplanted to the immune-deficiency mice to evaluate the effect of serum IL-8 on the tumorigenesis of the cancer samples.RESULTS： IL-8 and CXCR1 proteins were both overexpressed in pancreatic adenocarcinoma samples （55.6% and 65.4%, respectively） compared with the matched para-cancer tissues （25.9% and 12.3%, P 〈 0.01）, or chronic pancreatitis （0% and 25%, P 〈 0.05）. Serum IL-8 levels in pancreatic cancer patients （271.1 ± 187.7 ng/mL） were higher than in other digestive system tumors, such as gastric cancer （41.77 ± 9.11 ng/mL, P = 0.025）, colorectal carcinoma （78.72 ± 80.60 ng/mL, P = 0.032） and hepatocellular carcinoma （59.60 ± 19.80 ng/mL, P = 0.016）. In vivo tumorigenesis analysis further proved that tumor tissues from patients with higher serum IL-8 levels grew faster than those with lower IL-8 levels. CONCLUSION： IL-8 can be a fine serum marker for predicting the prognosis pancreatic cancer.