Abstract
Early detection of epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) is necessary to overcome the high mortality rate of late stage diagnosis; and, examining the molecular changes that occur at early disease onset may provide new strategies for OC detection. Since the deregulation of inflammatory mediators can contribute to OC development, the purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether elevated urinary levels of Interleukin-1beta (IL-1 beta) are associated with OC and associated clinical parameters. Urinary and serum levels of IL-1 beta were analyzed by ELISA from a patient cohort consisting of healthy women (N = 10), women with ovarian benign disease (N = 23), women with OC (N = 32), women with other benign gynecological conditions (N = 22), and women with other gynecological cancers (N = 6). Average urinary IL-1 beta levels tended to be elevated in ovarian benign (1.26 pg/ml) and OC (1.57 pg/ml) patient samples compared to healthy individuals (0.36 pg/ml). Among patients with benign disease, urinary IL-1β levels were statistically higher in patients with benign inflammatory gynecologic disease compared to patients with non-inflammatory benign disease. Interestingly, urinary IL-1 beta levels tended to be 3-6x greater in patients with benign ovarian disease or OC as well as with a concomitant family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer compared to similar patients without a family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer. Lastly, there was a pattern of increased urinary IL-1 beta with increasing body mass index (BMI); patients with a normal BMI averaged urinary IL-1 beta levels of 0.92 pg/ml, overweight BMI averaged urinary IL-1 beta levels of 1.72 pg/ml, and obese BMI averaged urinary IL-1 beta levels of 5.26 pg/ml. This pilot study revealed that urinary levels of IL-1 beta are elevated in patients with epithelial OC supporting the thought that inflammation might be associated with cancer progression. Consequently, further studies of urinary IL-1 beta and the identification of an inflammatory profile specific to OC development may be beneficial to reduce the mortality associated with this disease.
Highlights
Detection of epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) is necessary to overcome the high mortality rate of late stage diagnosis; and, examining the molecular changes that occur at early disease onset may provide new strategies for OC detection
Urinary levels of IL-1β generally decrease with increasing patient age Levels of urinary IL-1β were compared in 93 patients of the entire cohort and 87 patients of the age matched subset
Average urinary IL-1β levels were compared to patient age and as divided by decade grouping
Summary
Detection of epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) is necessary to overcome the high mortality rate of late stage diagnosis; and, examining the molecular changes that occur at early disease onset may provide new strategies for OC detection. In order to detect early stages of OC, there is a need for a better understanding of the sonography can result in false positive results and unnecessary surgery [7]. Utilizing these methods either alone or in combination does not produce the desired results for early disease detection. Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), is constitutively expressed in OC [8] and elevated in serum of OC patients [9], in this pilot study, we sought to assess whether elevated urinary levels of IL-1β are associated with OC and related clinical parameters
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