Paradoxical role of interleukin-33/suppressor of tumorigenicity 2 in colorectal carcinogenesis: Progress and therapeutic potential

Serum Interleukins 8, 17, and 33 as Potential Biomarkers of Colon Cancer

This research investigated the serum levels of three interleukins (IL8, IL17A, and IL33) and the possible relationships between them in healthy people and colon cancer patients at different stages. This study involved 82 participants, 42 of whom had colon cancer and 40 were healthy individuals. The cancer patients were classified into four groups according to the TNM staging classification of colon and rectal cancer. Serum levels of the interleukins were measured by the ELISA test. The data were analyzed statistically to compare the demographic characteristics, the interleukin levels across cancer stages, and the correlation between interleukins in both groups. The results showed that women had more early-stage colon cancer diagnoses, while men had more advanced-stage cancer diagnoses. Stage two colon cancer was more common in older people. Younger people, men, and those with early-stage colon cancer had higher levels of interleukins. The levels of IL8 and IL17A were higher in the cancer group, while the level of IL33 was higher in the healthy group. There was a strong correlation between IL8 and IL17A levels in both groups (p = 0.001). IL17A influenced the level of IL33 in the cancer group (p = 0.007). This study suggested that cytokine variation profiles could be useful for detecting colon cancer and predicting its outcome.

Prognostic role of serum soluble ST2 of advanced breast cancer patients: a retrospective cohort study

Background

The soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 receptor (sST2) binds to interleukin-33 (IL-33) and blocks IL-33 and ST2 binding, suggesting that sST2 acts as a "decoy" receptor for IL-33 and is involved in the malignant progression of breast cancer. This paper aimed to investigate the differences in sST2 expression in patients with different molecular subtypes of breast cancer and assess its clinical value in the prognostic evaluation of advanced breast cancer.

Methods

In this paper, we collected sera from 91 patients firstly diagnosed with advanced breast cancer at the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from 2008 to 2021 during their first hospitalization. We detected the expression level of sST2 in the serum of patients with different molecular fractions of breast cancer and analyzed the relationship between serum sST2 levels and breast cancer-related bone metastasis, cardiotoxicity, and overall survival. Bone metastases were detected using the Emission Computed Tomography technique, and chemotherapy drug-induced cardiotoxicity was detected by echocardiography. The Overall Survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator, and multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to demonstrate the association between variables and sST2 levels.

Results

Serum sST2 levels did not vary among the different pathological types, molecular types, and estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and tumor proliferation marker (Ki-67) subgroups, and only differed significantly in the cardiotoxicity group. There were no statistical differences in tissue polypeptide specific antigen (TPSA), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 153 (CA153), D-dimer, and inflammatory indexes neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) among different molecular subgroups. However, except for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), there was no difference in peripheral blood soluble ST2 concentrations among other molecular subtypes. Meanwhile, the survival of the high sST2 level group among advanced breast cancer patients was significantly lower than that of the normal group, and sST2 expression was closely related to cardiotoxicity and clinical stage.

Conclusions

Serum sST2 is not only traditionally applied to the assessment of cardiac injury, but can also be utilized for assessing the prognosis of advanced breast cancer, excluding the influence of clinical stage and cardiotoxicity.