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Elevated serum interleukin-37 level is a predictive biomarker of poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer patients

  • Gynecologic Oncology
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Interleukin-37 (IL-37) has been identified as a novel anti-inflammatory cytokine which is involved in tumor development. This study aimed to evaluate the expression of IL-37 in serum and determine its clinical significance in human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).

Methods

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed to examine the serum IL-37 levels in 76 patients with EOC and 76 healthy controls. The association of IL-37 levels with clinical factors and prognosis of EOC patients was analyzed. The diagnostic accuracy of serum IL-37 was performed by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results

Serum IL-37 levels in patients with EOC (187.3 ± 75.57 pg/ml) were significantly higher than those in healthy controls (84.89 ± 28.92 pg/ml, P < 0.001). High serum IL-37 levels were significantly associated with FIGO stage (P < 0.001), tumor size (P = 0.002), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.021), positive recurrence (P = 0.047) and residual tumor size (P < 0.001). The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that high serum IL-37 levels were significantly associated with poor overall survival and the progression-free survival (log-rank, P = 0.026, and P = 0.039, respectively). Univariate and multivariate analysis indicated that serum IL-37 levels (HR = 3.007, 95% CI 2.125–4.842, P = 0.008) were an independent prognostic factor for EOC patients. ROC curve analyses revealed an AUC (the areas under the ROC curve) of 0.881 (95% CI 0.829–0.945; P < 0.001).

Conclusions

High serum IL-37 levels are associated with an unfavorable prognosis of EOC patients. IL-37 may serve as a promising and useful prognostic biomarker for EOC.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, The First Hospital of Yulin, Yulin, Shaanxi, 718000, China

      Junwei Huo & Gaowei Liu

    2. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Xi’an Central Hospital, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710003, China

      Jing Hu

    3. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Xi’an No 1. Hospital, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710003, China

      Yajie Cui

    4. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, No 1, Xinsi Road, Baqiao District, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710038, China

      Ying Ju

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    1. Junwei Huo
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    Correspondence to Ying Ju.

    Ethics declarations

    The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of The First Hospital of Yulin. Written informed consent was obtained from all of the patients according to the committee’s guidelines. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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    J. Hu contributed equally to this work.

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    Huo, J., Hu, J., Liu, G. et al. Elevated serum interleukin-37 level is a predictive biomarker of poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer patients. Arch Gynecol Obstet 295, 459–465 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-016-4258-8

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-016-4258-8

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