The Role of Pretreatment Serum Interleukin 6 in Predicting Short-Term Mortality in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is notorious for its aggressive progression and dismal survival rates, with this study highlighting elevated interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels in patients as a key marker of increased disease severity and a potential prognostic indicator. Analyzing pre-treatment serum from 77 advanced PDAC patients via ELISA, the research determined optimal cutoff values for IL-6 and the IL-6:sIL-6Rα ratio using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, which then facilitated the division of patients into low and high IL-6 groups, showing significantly different survival outcomes. Notably, high IL-6 levels correlated with adverse features such as poorly differentiated histology, higher tumor burden, and low albumin levels, indicating a stronger likelihood of poorer prognosis. With a median follow-up of 9.28 months, patients with lower IL-6 levels experienced markedly better median overall survival and progression-free survival than those with higher levels, underscoring IL-6’s role in predicting disease prognosis. Multivariate analysis further confirmed IL-6 levels, alongside older age, and elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, as predictors of worse outcomes, suggesting that IL-6 could be a critical biomarker for tailoring treatment strategies in advanced PDAC, warranting further investigation into its role in systemic inflammation and the tumor microenvironment.

Keywords

• pancreatic cancer
• interleukin-6
• prognosis
• inflammation