Quantitation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and interleukin-6 in the effusions of ovarian epithelial neoplasms.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to determine the presence and quantities of multifunctional cytokines in cyst and ascites fluids obtained from patients with ovarian cancer.

STUDY

DESIGN

Cyst and ascites fluids obtained from 35 patients with ovarian epithelial neoplasms were analyzed for the multifunctional cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1 beta, and interleukin-6. The fluids were classified on the basis of the pathologic diagnosis of the tumor tissue. Data were evaluated by analysis of variance.

RESULTS

The fluids from patients with papillary forms of adenocarcinoma had high levels of all three cytokines when compared with all other pathologic groups. Interleukin-6 was significantly higher than tumor necrosis factor-alpha or interleukin-1 beta in fluids from all diagnostic categories (p < 0.01). Interleukin-6 levels were significantly higher in fluids from patients with papillary serous cystadenocarcinoma (817 +/- 137 pg/ml) and papillary adenocarcinoma (838 +/- 171 pg/ml) (p < 0.01). Interleukin-1 beta was significantly elevated (p < 0.01) in neoplastic effusions from papillary serous cystadenocarcinomas (53 +/- 8 pg/ml), mucinous cystadenomas (51 +/- 12 pg/ml), and endometrioid carcinomas (54 +/- 18 pg/ml). Tumor necrosis factor-alpha was highest in fluids from patients with papillary adenocarcinoma (46.2 +/- 22.8 pg/ml); however, these levels were not significantly different from the mean quantities of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in other fluids.

CONCLUSIONS

The detection of interleukin-1 beta and interleukin-6 in neoplastic effusions provides possible evidence for a host immune response to ovarian cancer. These multifunctional cytokines have been implicated in growth stimulation and cytotoxicity of ovarian tumor cells.