Objectives: Recent studies indicate that interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) is an autocrine growth factor for some ovarian cancer cells and suggest that IL-1 alpha plays an important role in the progression of this disease. However, soluble IL-1 receptors as IL-1 sRII, can modulate the effects of IL-1 alpha by acting as IL-1 alpha antagonists. The aim of our study was to compare serum IL-1 alpha and IL-1 sRII levels in patients with benign and malignant gynaecological tumours and in control.
Materials and methods: Pretreatment serum samples were obtained from 72 women with gynaecological tumors. This study included 37 patients with gynaecological cancers (21 with cervical cancer, 16 with ovarian cancer), and 35 women with benign gynaecological disorders (20 with ovarian tumour, 15 with uterine myoma). As a control group, sera were obtained from 20 healthy female volunteers. The levels of IL-1 alpha and IL-1 sRII were measured by ELISA (R&D Systems, Inc, Minneapolis, USA).
Results: Serum IL-1 alpha and IL-1 sRII levels in women with ovarian cancers were significantly higher than those in cervical cancer, and in patients with benign disorders, and in healthy control (p < 0.0001).
Conclusions: Our results suggests that IL-1 alpha has a strong association with ovarian cancer.