Psychosocial factors and interleukin‐6 among women with advanced ovarian cancer

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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Relations among psychological stress, depression, social support, and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6, a proinflammatory cytokine) have been documented in humans and animals. Because elevated IL‐6 is associated with a poorer prognosis among ovarian cancer patients and has been implicated in the metastasis of ovarian cancer, the current study examined relations between psychosocial factors and IL‐6 among women with advanced‐stage ovarian cancer.METHODS: Sixty‐one ovarian cancer patients completed assessments of social support, distressed mood, and quality of life before surgery. Peripheral blood was drawn preoperatively, and the plasma was assayed for IL‐6. Ascites samples were also assayed for IL‐6 for a subset of patients.RESULTS: Both IL‐6 levels and distressed mood were elevated among patients. After statistically adjusting effects of age and disease stage, social attachment was associated with lower levels of IL‐6 in peripheral blood (P= 0.03), whereas poorer health‐related quality of life was associated with higher IL‐6 (Pvalues ranged from 0.01 to 0.03 on different measures). This pattern of relations was also found in the ascites. Moreover, IL‐6 levels in peripheral blood plasma correlated significantly with IL‐6 in the ascites (P< 0.001), suggesting that peripheral IL‐6 reflects IL‐6 levels at the site of the tumor.CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that social support may play a protective role with respect to IL‐6 elevations, and IL‐6 may be an independent marker of health‐related quality of life among ovarian cancer patients. Processes involving IL‐6 represent possible pathways by which behavioral factors may contribute to disease outcomes among women with ovarian cancer. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.