Expression Of Serum Cytokines IL-1β And TNF-α In Patients With Hepatic Carcinoma And Their Correlations With Clinical Characteristics

Objective: To investigate serum cytokines including interleukin-1β(IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) in patients with primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) and their correlations with clinical characteristics.Methods: The levels of serum IL-1βand TNF-αwere determined by the double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)in patients with primary hepatic carcinoma (cancer group) and healthy subjects(control group).Results: The levels of serum IL-1βand TNF-αwere significantly elevated in cancer group than in control group(P <0.001). And there was no significant difference between patients with non-metastatic hepatic carcinoma and those with metastasis. There was no significant difference in the concentration of IL-1βbetween HPC patients received non-treatments (including surgery, chemotherapy to kill tumor cells, intervention) and those received treatments (P >0.05). Otherwise, the concentration of TNF-αwas reduced in HPC patients received treatments rather than those non-received treatments.ROC(Receiver operation characteristic)analysis demonstrated the diagnosis value of IL-1β(AUC = 0.742 P< 0.001)and TNF-α(AUC = 0.907 P < 0.001) in PHC patients. Spearman's rank correlation analysis showed that there was positive correlation between IL-1βand TNF-α(r = 0.271 P = 0.001). And also there was positive correlation between AFP and IL-1β(r = 0.244 P = 0.004) or TNF-α(r = 0.373 P<0.001),respectively.Conclusions: Primary hepatic carcinoma is closely associated with inflammation, of which the inflammation burden is significantly elevated. So IL-1βand TNF-αmay play important roles in the initial and progression of PHC, and they can be used as diagnosis markers.