A Review of the Role of Interleukin-6 on Disease Progression in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Abstract
Ovarian cancer is one of the most harmful gynecological cancers and has one of the highest mortality rates. As ovarian cancer progresses, the patient has changes to the immune system and energy metabolism with symptoms being weight loss, nausea, and fatigue. Changes to the immune system include overexpression of proinflammatory cytokines. One such cytokine is Interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is a useful prognostic marker to measure disease progression. IL-6 is thought to promote cancer cell proliferation by upregulating apoptosis inhibitory proteins. IL-6 also plays a role in ascites formation. While tumors may initially respond to chemotherapy treatment, most patients will have a reoccurrence of the cancer due to IL-6 conferring chemoresistance. This review will examine the risk factors for epithelial ovarian cancer and its relation to obesity and diabetes. It will also examine the specific role of IL-6 in early pathology, metastasis, and chemoresistance of ovarian cancer cells. Lastly, current treatments including a monoclonal antibody called siltuximab and zerumbone that target IL-6 will be explored.
