Association between systemic and local inflammation in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Introduction:

Patients suffering from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with lymphatic metastasis have a relatively poor prognosis and often require radical therapeutic management. It is well known that inflammation and carcinogenesis are dependent parameters that strongly influence each other. In addition to tumor cells, host immune cells play a crucial role in tumor development, angiogenesis and metastasis. The aim of our study was to assess, whether an association exists between systemic inflammation and local inflammation in the tumor microenvironment.

Methods:

We determined the cellular immune infiltrate in cryo-preserved tumor sections and analyzed serum biomarkers in a cohort of 60 patients with HNSCC, who underwent surgery between 2007 and 2014. Moreover we correlated the results with clinical parameters such as TNM stage.

Results:

Different serum cytokines correlated statistically significant with each other: High IL-10 significantly correlated with increased levels of IL-6, IL-7 and SCF. SCF correlated significantly with IL-6 and MIF. Moreover TGF-b1 showed a significantly correlation with Gro-a, MIF and S100 A8/A9. Higher serum TGF-b1 correlated furthermore significantly with higher N-stage. There was less correlation of tumor microenvironmental biomarkers with serum cytokine measurements.

Conclusion:

Our data reveal a systemic inflammatory signature present in patients with HNSCC. This signature is partially associated with clinical disease, especially the N-stage.

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 April 2019 (online)