Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: April | Volume: 7 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 369-382
Interleukin-8: A Potential Marker for Differentiating Papillary Thyroid Cancer
Toral Kobawala1, Kinjal Gajjar1, Nandita Ghosh2
1Research Assistant, 2Assistant Professor and Head,
Tumor Biology Lab, Department of Cancer Biology, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute, Asarwa, Ahmedabad-380016.
Corresponding Author: Nandita Ghosh
ABSTRACT
Background: Thyroid disorders represent relatively common medical conditions worldwide. Although better managed, it is often difficult to distinguish benign and thyroid cancer cells. To avoid inappropriate treatment decisions based on unconvincing results, it is inevitable to understand molecular mechanisms underlying thyroid carcinogenesis. Cytokines have a key role in an intricate relationship between inflammation and cancer. IL-8 is one such potent inflammatory mediator recognized to modulate proliferation, invasion and migration of tumor cells. Hence it was aimed to study expression of IL-8 in benign and thyroid cancer patients.
Methods: Circulating IL-8 levels (by ELISA) and tumoral IL-8 expression (by Immunohistochemistry) was studied in total 240 subjects: 67 healthy individuals, 67 benign thyroid diseases patients and 106 thyroid cancer patients with majority being diagnosed as papillary thyroid cancer (PTC: N=83).
Results: Circulating IL-8 was significantly elevated in benign and thyroid cancer as compared to controls. Both circulating and tumoral IL-8 expression were significantly higher in PTC as compared to benign thyroid diseases. Moreover, IL-8 expression was significantly associated with aggressive tumor characteristics of PTC patients.
Conclusion: IL-8 could be a potential marker for differentiating patients with benign thyroid diseases and cancer. IL-8 overexpression was not suppressed by Suppressors of cytokine signalling (SOCS) proteins and may induce expression of adhesion molecules: VCAM-1 and L-Selectin and thereby increase thyroid cancer progression. Further, significant association of IL-8 expression with shorter overall survival in PTC patients treated with surgery alone, suggests that conventional treatment strategies may be improved by additionally targeting IL-8 signalling in such patients.
Keywords: Thyroid cancer, IL-8, SOCS, Immunohistochemistry, ELISA, Benign thyroid diseases
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