Immunohistochemical Detection of Interleukin-6 in Iraqi Patients with Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer is the second cancer causing death in men, after lung cancer, many etiological agents are proposed to play a role in its pathogenicity, one of these factors iscytokines.

Objective: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of IL6 and to establish the correlation between expression of IL6 and prostate cancer progression.

Methods: A case control study of 120 paraffin embedded prostatic tissue blocks, 50 cases were prostatic carcinoma (PCa), 50 cases were benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and 20 cases were normal prostatic tissue. Sections from each block were prepared for immunohistochemical staining of IL6.

Results: 39 (78.0%) out of 50 prostatic carcinoma (PCa) cases demonstrated positive expression for IL6 specific antibody, the majority of PCa (56.4%) presented moderate positivity (++), (25.6%) showed intense positivity (+++) and (18.0%) showed weak positivity (+) against 11(22.0%)  which offered negativism. While only 8 (16.0%)  out of 50 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) exhibited positive outcome when stained with this marker, comparing to 20 normal prostatic tissue (NPT) samples which revealed two positivity for IL6 antibodies.

Conclusion: Significant differences between expression of IL6 and histological type of prostatic lesions, between prostatic carcinoma, BPH and normal prostatic tissue, which may have potential to evolve to malignancy.