Investigation of TNF-α and IL-6 Levels in the Sera of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Patients

TNF-α and IL-6 are both pleiotropic cytokines playing major roles in cancer-associated cytokine networks. They have previously been investigated for their function in skin malignancies, mostly melanomas, and studies on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) patients are relatively rara. In this study, we aimed to investigate the associations of serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α with NMSCs and its clinicopathological features.

This cases-control study was carried out to assess the serum levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in 70 NMSC patients, in comparison with 30 healthy individuals, by means of flow cytometric bead-based immuneoassay.

Serum levels of both TNF-α and IL-6 were significantly higher in NMSC patients (6.470 vs. 4.355 pg/ml; p = 0.0468, respectively), compared to healthy individuals (3.205 vs. 0.000 pg/ml; p = 0.0126, respectively). In the subgroup analysis, squamous cell carcinomas patients had higher serum levels of IL-6 compared to healthy individuals (3.445 vs. 0.000 pg/ml; p = 0.0432). No other significant differences were observed in the serum levels of these two cytokines among different clinicopathological subgroups of the patients.

The increased levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in NMSC patients can be introduced as an epiphenomenon of a complex cancer-induced cytokine cascade.