Interleukin 6 receptor (IL-6R) was an independent prognostic factor in cervical cancer

Abstract

IL-6 has been found to be associated with poor response to chemoradiotherapy and poor overall prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. However, little is known about the clinicopathological significance of IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) expression in the setting of cervical cancer. To investigate the clinicopathological meaning of IL-6R in cervical cancer, expression of IL6R was detected using immunohistochemistry in cervical cancer tissue microarray composed of 98 cases of cervical cancer and paired normal controls. As further confirmation of expression trend, western-blotting was conducted in another independent 36 pairs of cervical cancer and matched normal controls. Subsequently, the statistical correlation between IL-6R expression and clinicopathological variables was analyzed, including demographic, TNM stage, clinical grading and overall prognosis. IL-6R expression was shown to be remarkably associated with lymph node metastasis, recurrence and overall prognosis. Moreover, only IL-6R expression was observed to be an independent prognostic factor among these variables that could potentially influence the overall prognosis of patients with cervical cancer. In conclusion, IL-6R was shown to be an independent prognostic factor for patients with cervical cancer.