Prognostic value of serum IL-10 and soluble IL-2 receptor levels in aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Summary We investigated the prognostic significance of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and soluble interleuckin-2 receptor (sIl-2r) levles in the pretreatment serum of 105 individuals with newly-diagnosed aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Commercially available enzyem-linked immunoassay kits were used for cytokine and receptor measurements. Detectable levels of IL-10 were found in 42 (40%) patients at diagnosis, with no correlation with clinico-haematological parameters, but in no control samples (P < 0.001).
Pretreatment concentrations of sIL-2r were markedly increased in individuals with NHL when compared to controls (2614 ± 893 U/ml v 219 ± 65U/ml, P < 0.001), patients with stage III/IV presenting higher values than those with stage II disase (3885 ± 1196U/ml v 1732 ± 646U/ml, P < 0.001). No single parameter was associated with the achiveement of complete remission, but the combination of elevated IL-10 and of sIL-2r greater than 3000U/ml selected a subset of patients with a high probability of failing induction therapy (P < 0.001). Lifetable analysis also indicated thatj patients with these characteristics have a significantly shorter event-free survival. In a multivariate analysis the combination of IL-10 with sIL-2r was found to have greater predictive strength than the combination of IL-10 with β₂-micro-globulin. We conclude that IL-10 and sIL-2r measurements can be expected to improve existing methods of risk assignment in aggressive NHL.