Polymorphism of IL-1alpha, IL-1beta and IL-10 in patients with advanced ovarian cancer: results of a prospective study with 147 patients.

Objective: Interleukin 1 (IL-1) and IL-10 are critically involved in tumorigenesis. We investigated polymorphisms of IL-1 and IL-10 genes in patients with ovarian cancer (OC).

Methods: In a prospective, case-control study 147 patients with OC and 129 patients without history of any malignancy (CG) were genotyped for IL-1 gene (IL-1alpha -889 T/C and IL-1beta -511 C/T) and IL-10 gene (IL-10 -1082 G/A, -819 C/T and -592 C/A) using pyrosequencing.

Results: IL-10 polymorphisms in -819 and -592 positions correlated with the postoperative residual tumor mass (p=0.036 and p=0.035, respectively). The chance of achieving optimal tumor debulking was 1.49 times greater for patients with the C/C genotype at -819 and -512 positions than for patients with other genotypes. There were no significant associations between allelic frequencies for IL-1alpha and IL-1beta in OC. IL-10 -819 CC and -592 CC genotypes were associated in univariate analysis with a better disease-free and overall survival.

Conclusions: IL-10 promoter polymorphism may be related with the ability to achieve optimal tumor debulking. Polymorphism in IL-10 gene seems to influence the overall and disease-free survival rate. Subsequent multi-institutional studies with high number of patients are warranted to confirm these results.