IL-17A Levels in the Sera of Patients with Gastric Cancer Show Limited Elevation

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Inflammation plays a major role in the development and progression of gastric and othergastrointestinal tumors. The IL-17 family of cytokines has been under investigation as targets of immunotherapy.Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: We investigated the levels of IL-17A inflammatory cytokine in the sera of 57 patients withgastric cancer (GC) and 90 healthy age/sex matched controls using ELISA methods. <br/><b>Results</b>: In only 5 (8.8%) ofthe patients’ sera was IL-17A detectable. No IL-17A was apparent in the sera of healthy controls. The maximumconcentration of IL-17A in patients was 7.004 pg/ml. Vascular and lymphatic invasions were only seen in oneof the 5 positive cases. Although all of them were in the age group >60 years, no correlation was seen betweenage and IL-17A level. These results are somewhat different from our findings for colorectal cancer (CRC) in thesame population. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: It is possible that the inflammopathology of CRC and GC are rather different,at least in Fars, a southern province of Iran.