CONTENTS OF CYTOKINES AND LACTOFERRIN IN ONCOLOGICAL PATIENTS

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of present work was to study the peculiarities of cytokine production in patients with malignant tumors, as exemplified by lymphoma and malignant melanoma. Sixty-five patients with malignancies (16 to 74 years old) have been surveyed. Contents of IL-1β, IL-4, TNFα and lactoferrin were studied in blood serum using enzyme immunoassay technique. The results of study have shown that the patients with melanoma have a significant reduction in IL-1-β and TNFα in blood serum, thus being suggestive for development of deficient immune response. In malignant lymphoma, the patients did also exhibit subnormal values of TNFα and IL-1β (below a threshold level of 5 pg/ml), thus supposing some deficiency in proinflammatory cytokine secretion. An interrelation was shown between the contents of lactoferrin and proinflammatory cytokines. After radical treatment of melanoma, like as in lymphoma patients free of В-symptoms, the lactoferrin contents were within normal limits, whereas in the patients with generalization of malignancy, and in lymphoma patients with В-symptoms, a trend to its increase has been established. Determination of the mentioned parameters in patients with lymphoma and malignant melanoma would provide useful diagnostic and predictive criteria in these clinical conditions.

Keywords

• cytokines
• lactoferrin
• lymphoma
• melanoma
• il-1β
• il-4
• tnfα