Epithelial IL-8 immunostaining associated with overall survival in ovarian cancer

Cytokines have major role in regulating the biological processes such as cell growth and activation, chemotaxis, inflammation, immunity and tissue repair. The cytokines involvement in oncogenesis shows their role in signaling between inflammatory cells and invasive neoplastic tissue. This study assessed the association of epithelial and stromal immunostaining of panel of cytokines with overall survival and disease-free survival in malignant ovarian neoplasia women. The study included 28 ovarian cancer patients. The patients’ age, staging, differentiation grade, histological type of tumors, treatment type and survivals (disease-free survival and overall survival) were evaluated. Immunohistochemical analysis was made to assess the epithelial and stromal immunostaining of interleukins (IL-2, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Cut-off values for the immunostaining cytokines were calculated through Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Kaplan-Meier curves were designed to evaluate the survival followed by Cox regression. ROC curves relating death to epithelial IL-8 staining and stromal TNF-alpha staining exhibited a cut-off value more than staining 1 for both cytokines. There was no statistical significance found in the evaluation of other cytokines and disease-free survival. Overall survival was shorter in patients with epithelial IL-8 staining 2/3 (p = 0.049). No statistical significance was found regarding TNF-alpha stromal. Multivariate analysis revealed that epithelial IL-8 staining 2/3 was an independent variable linked to lower overall survival ((Odds ratio (OR) = 18.515. 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.160–295.549)). Therefore, epithelial IL-8 immunostaining predicts overall survival of ovarian malignancy patients. This cytokine can be the target for discovering other types of management systems for epithelial ovarian cancer and borderline ovarian tumor.