ArticleBritish journal of cancer2003
Prognostic value of serum levels of interleukin 6 and of serum and plasma levels of vascular endothelial growth factor in hormone-refractory metastatic breast cancer patients.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 148 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
148 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 318 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exercise and inflammation in female survivors of breast cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis with secondary mediation analysis on body composition.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of exercise on inflammation in female survivors of nonmetastatic breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025Pooled it
- Prognostic Relevance of Inflammatory Cytokines Il-6 and TNF-Alpha in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Pooled it
- Antiangiogenic Activity of Flavonoids: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Pooled it
- A single bout of resistance or high-intensity interval training increases anti-cancer myokines and suppresses cancer cell growth in vitro in survivors of breast cancer.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Trial
- Brief Post-Surgical Stress Management Reduces Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Overweight and Obese Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Primary Treatment.Frontiers in bioscience (Landmark edition) · 2022Trial
- Mindfulness and its efficacy for psychological and biological responses in women with breast cancer.Cancer medicine · 2017Trial
- Mindfulness based stress reduction study design of a longitudinal randomized controlled complementary intervention in women with breast cancer.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2013Trial
- Investigating the utility of serum cytokine measurements in a multi-institutional cancer anorexia/weight loss trial.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2004Trial
- Cytokine comparisons between women with breast cancer and women with a negative breast biopsy.Nursing researchTrial
- Trial
- Remodeling the Immune Landscape: How Obesity-Induced SASPs Create a Pro-Tumorigenic Niche.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Prognostic value of lymphopenia in early breast cancer: learnings from the prospective CANTO cohort.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2026Article
- Insights into the molecular and genetic role of obesity in breast cancer pathogenesis.Cancer biology & therapy · 2025Review
- Therapeutic targeting of STING-IL6/STAT3 axis to inhibit osteoclastic niche formation and breast cancer bone metastasis.Cell death discovery · 2025Article
- Molecular, cellular, biochemical, and rehabilitative insights into exercise interventions for gynecological cancer prevention and survivorship: a narrative review.Journal of ovarian research · 2025Review
- The Regulatory Role of CTCF in IL6 Gene Transcription Assessed in Breast Cancer Cell Lines.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Ferroptotic Neutrophils Induce Immunosuppression and Chemoresistance in Breast Cancer.Cancer research · 2025Article
- Synergistic effect of bazedoxifene and abemaciclib co‑treatment in triple‑negative breast cancer cells in vitro.Oncology letters · 2024Article
- Prognostic role of pre-diagnostic circulating inflammatory biomarkers in breast cancer survival: evidence from the EPIC cohort study.British journal of cancer · 2024Article
88 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Prediction of survival for patients with metastatic breast cancer is often inaccurate and may be helped by new biological parameters. Tumour growth being angiogenesis-dependent, it has been hypothesised that the assessment of angiogenic factor production might reflect the clinical behaviour of cancer progression. This study was designed to investigate the clinical significance of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in hormone-refractory metastatic breast cancer. Serum and plasma concentrations of VEGF and serum concentration of IL-6 were measured in 87 patients with a fully documented history of metastatic breast cancer using an enzyme-linked immunoassay. All patients had detectable levels of VEGF, whereas 39% patients had detectable serum levels of IL-6. There was a positive correlation between IL-6 levels and the theoretical VEGF load of platelets (P<0.001). The presence of high levels of serum IL-6, but not VEGF, was significantly correlated to a shorter survival. In a multivariate analysis along with clinical prognostic parameters, serum IL-6 was identified as an independent adverse prognostic variable for overall survival (P&<0.001). These results indicate that serum IL-6 levels correlate to poor survival in patients with hormone-refractory metastatic breast cancer. Vascular endothelial growth factor serum and plasma levels are not useful indicators of prognosis for these patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.