Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. May 24, 2025; 16(5): 107551
Published online May 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i5.107551
Serum pro-inflammatory cytokines as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of gastric carcinoma
Le Ren, Jun Liu, Ya-Yun Xu, Zhen-Wang Shi
Le Ren, Zhen-Wang Shi, Department of Gastroenterology, Second People's Hospital of Hefei, Hefei 230011, Anhui Province, China
Jun Liu, Department of Ophthalmology, The Third People’s Hospital of Hefei, Hefei 230011, Anhui Province, China
Ya-Yun Xu, Shenzhen Institute of Translational Medicine, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, Shenzhen 538000, Guangdong Province, China
Co-first authors: Le Ren and Jun Liu.
Author contributions: Ren L, Liu J, Xu YY, and Shi ZW were involved in the conception and design of the study; Ren L, Liu J, Xu YY constructed a draft of the manuscript; Shi ZW has provided relevant feedback and critical revisions of the manuscript. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: In accordance with the guidelines established in the Declaration of Helsinki, all participants in the study provided informed written consent prior to their involvement. Approval for the study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Second People's Hospital of Hefei (Approval No. 2023-keyan-123).
Informed consent statement: All participants in the study provided informed written consent prior to their involvement.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors has a conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhen-Wang Shi, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Second People's Hospital of Hefei, Heping Road, Hefei 230011, Anhui Province, China. shiyitao99@163.com
Received: March 27, 2025
Revised: April 2, 2025
Accepted: April 24, 2025
Published online: May 24, 2025
Processing time: 54 Days and 19.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Multiple lines of evidence have indicated that pro-inflammatory cytokines play a role in the pathophysiology of gastric carcinoma (GC).

AIM

To identify potential serum cytokine-based biomarkers for GC diagnosis.

METHODS

The study cohort comprised 50 patients diagnosed with GC and 50 healthy control subjects. A panel of 7 pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were quantified using multiplex Luminex assays. Comparative analyses were conducted to evaluate cytokine levels between the GC patients and healthy controls. The diagnostic potential of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines in differentiating GC patients from healthy individuals was assessed through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The correlation between serum cytokine levels and disease severity, as classified by the tumor-node-metastasis staging system, was analyzed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

In comparison to the control group, patients with GC demonstrated significantly elevated serum levels of IL-1β (t = -4.089, P < 0.001), IL-6 (t = -3.983, P < 0.001), IL-8 (t = -5.460, P < 0.001), and IFN-γ (t = -2.856, P = 0.005). ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve values for IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 exceeded 0.7, effectively distinguishing GC patients from healthy controls. Additionally, serum levels of IL-1β (r = 0.424, P = 0.012) and IL-6 (r = 0.742, P < 0.001) were positively correlated with the T stage in GC patients. Similarly, serum concentrations of IL-1β (r = 0.356, P = 0.039) and IL-6 (r = 0.441, P = 0.008) exhibited a positive association with the N stage in these patients.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8, may serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of GC.

Keywords: Gastric carcinoma; Pro-inflammatory cytokines; Serum; Biomarker; Diagnosis

Core Tip: This investigation compared the concentrations of seven pro-inflammatory cytokines between gastric carcinoma (GC) patients and healthy controls, aiming to identify serum cytokine-based biomarkers for GC. The study produced four main findings. Firstly, GC patients demonstrated elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and interferon-γ compared to controls. Secondly, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve values for IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 exceeded 0.7 in differentiating GC patients from healthy individuals. Thirdly, serum levels of IL-1β and IL-6 showed a positive correlation with the T stage of the disease. Fourthly, the serum concentrations of IL-1β and IL-6 were positively associated with the N stage. These findings suggest that circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8, may serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of GC.