The prognostic valdue of interleukin-6 (IL-6)‎ and C-reactive protein (CRP)‎ in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)‎

Abstract EN

Background: IL-6 was previously reported to be associated with poor prognostic factors in NHL and also was found to stimulate many acute phase reaction protein synthesis.

Patients and methods: The prognostic value of two simple serum markers (IL-6 and CRP) has been prospectively studied in 40 newly diagnosed patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma treated with standard CHOP or CVP chemotherapy regimen for high and intermediate grade or low grade respectively.

The significance of these markers was compared to other known prognostic indicators by statistical analysis.

Results: In unvaried analysis the age, stage, tumor mass, pretreatment serum albumen, LDH, IL-6 and CRP levels were found to have influence on remission rate.

However, in the regression analysis to the results of 33 cases with high and intermediate grade, the pre-treatment IL-6 and CRP levels were the only predictors for remission with a P-value of .001 and .0001 respectively.

Conclusion: In this pilot prospective study the prognostic value of these two serum markers (namely IL-6 and CRP) was clearly demonstrated.

Future study with larger patient sample size is needed to verify these promising results.