Prognostic significance of plasma interleukin-6/-8 in pancreatic cancer patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy

Figure 1 Treatment schedule for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The patients were treated with gemcitabine alone, followed by dendritic cells pulsed with a Wilms’ tumor 1 (WT1)-specific peptide mixture restricted by multiple major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and II molecules (DC/WT1-I/II) in combination with gemcitabine or S-1, an oral 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). GEM: Gemcitabine.

Figure 2 Response assessment in a super-responder, case 6. A: Computed tomography (CT) imaging of case 6 revealing pancreatic body cancer before treatment and no liver metastases; B: CT imaging after chemoimmunotherapy revealed that local pancreatic lesions were stable; C: Local pancreatic lesions were stable (left panel), multiple liver metastases appeared at 545 d after the first treatment (right panel); D: Local pancreatic lesions were stable (left panel), the sizes of multiple liver metastases were markedly increased at 963 d after the first treatment (right panel).

Figure 3 Association of Wilms’ tumor 1-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions with overall survival. Kaplan-Meier estimates of overall survival (OS) for patients with PDA treated with dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with Wilms’ tumor 1 (WT1) MHC class I and -II peptides (DC/WT1-I/II) combined with chemotherapy. A: OS in WT1-specific delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH)-positive (n = 4) or -negative (n = 3) responders; B: OS in strongly WT1-specific DTH-positive (n = 3) or -negative (n = 3) responders.

Figure 4 Plasma interleukin-6 levels in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy. A: Plasma interleukin (IL)-6 levels in 6 patients during treatment; B: Comparison of plasma IL-6 levels prior to treatment between super-responders [overall survival (OS) ≥ 1 year] and nonsuper-responders (OS < 1 year); C: Comparison of plasma IL-6 levels in super-responders prior to treatment and post-vaccination; D: Comparison of plasma IL-6 levels after 5 vaccinations between nonsuper-responders and super-responders after 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 vaccinations. The values are expressed as mean ± SD. ^aP < 0.05.

Figure 5 Association of plasma interleukin-6 levels with overall survival and progression-free survival. The plasma interleukin (IL)-6 levels of 7 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy were analyzed after 5 vaccinations. Kaplan-Meier estimates of OS (A) and PFS (B) in these patients.

Figure 6 Plasma interleukin-8 levels in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients receiving chemoimmunotherapy. A: Plasma interleukin (IL)-8 levels in 7 patients during treatment; B: Comparison of plasma IL-8 levels prior to treatment between super-responders [overall survival (OS) ≥ 1 year] and nonsuper-responders (OS < 1 year); C: Comparison of plasma IL-8 levels in super-responders prior to treatment and post-vaccination; D: Comparison of plasma IL-8 levels after 5 vaccinations in nonsuper-responders and super-responders after 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 vaccinations. The values are expressed as means ± SD. ^aP < 0.05.