Hormonal treatment of advanced prostatic cancer patients generally results in an initially beneficial response, but the treated patients develop hormonally resistant disease in which no curative therapy is currently available. Recent studies have revealed that interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a growth factor for myeloma, renal cell carcinoma, and certain T-cell lymphomas. Further, IL-6 has been shown to block apoptosis induced by p53, transforming growth factor beta, and certain cancer chemotherapeutic compounds. The objective of the present study was to determine whether IL-6 is a growth factor for two human prostate cancer lines and whether it protects the tumor cells from drug-induced cell death. Two hormone-independent prostate cell lines were used in this study, namely PC-3 and DU145, and these have been shown to be relatively resistant to cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (CDDP), etoposide (VP-16), and adriamycin (ADR). Both cell lines express IL-6 mRNA and secrete IL-6 constitutively. The addition of anti-IL-6 antiserum to the cell lines resulted in a significant inhibition of cell growth up to day 2, and when additional antibody was added at day 2 the inhibition persisted for 4 days. The coaddition of anti-IL-6 antiserum and CDDP or VP-16 resulted in synergy in cytotoxicity in both cell lines, whereas the combination of antibody and ADR or suramin resulted only in additive effects. Sequential treatment revealed that anti-IL-6 antibody was required to achieve synergy, whereas either sequence of pretreatment resulted in synergy with anti-IL-6 and CDDP but not with VP-16. CDDP treatment of tumor cells down-regulated IL-6 mRNA expression and IL-6 secretion. The present findings demonstrate that IL-6 is an autocrine/paracrine growth factor for DU145 and PC-3 prostate lines. Additionally, the secretion of this cytokine protects the tumor cells against the cytotoxic effect of CDDP and VP-16 and its neutralization sensitizes the cells to cytotoxicity. Overall, the studies suggest that agents that can down-regulate or inhibit protective factors in tumors may overcome drug resistance.