Background: Cytokines are considered as part of host defence to infection or injury.
Material and methods: Pretreatment values of TNF and sIL-2R were measured in 132 women with a) ovarian carcinoma (n = 25), b) breast cancer (n = 20), c) endometrial cancer (n = 15), d) cervical squamous cell carcinoma (n = 19), e) cervical adenocarcinoma (n = 11) and f) benign gynecological diseases (n = 42) in order to evaluate whether these cytokines could be useful in the discrimination of malignant from benign gynecological diseases.
Results: Both TNF and sIL-2R were significantly higher in all cancer groups together (mean +/- SD: 30 +/- 11 pg/mL and 1293 +/- 465 U/mL respectively), than those in the benign group (16.0 +/- 6 pg/mL and 626 +/- 233 U/mL, respectively; p < 0.0001), while no significant differences were found for TNF and sIL-2R values in the five cancer groups. Significantly higher cytokine values were measured in the advanced stage diseases (33 +/- 11 pg/mL and 1705 +/- 192 U/mL), than those in the limited cancer (26 +/- 12 pg/mL, p < 0.05 and 916(521 U/mL, p < 0.0001).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that, cytokines may be useful in the discrimination of malignant from benign gynecological diseases and in monitoring tumor activity in patients early in the malignancy process.