Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26765465›Full record

SynthesisMedicine2016

Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Serum Interleukin-6 in Colorectal Cancer.

Jinming Xu, Yao Ye, Honghe Zhang, Maciej Szmitkowski, M J Mäkinen, Peiwei Li, Dajing Xia, Jun Yang, Yihua Wu, Han Wu

Open access · goldAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
71citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.9field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

71 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Prognostic significance of pre-intervention circulating cytokines in digestive system cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. The therapeutic potential ofAvicenna journal of phytomedicine · 2026
    Article
  9. The mechanism of Akkermansia muciniphila inhibiting the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells via ferroptosis.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Inflammation and cancer: friend or foe?Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024
    Review
  20. Review

11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jinming XuFrom the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, (JX, YY, PL, HW); Department of Toxicology, Zhejiang University School of Public Health, (JX, YY, DX, YW); Department of Pathology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China (HZ); Department of Biochemical Diagnostics, Medical University of Bialystok, Sklodowska-Curie 24A, Bialystok, Poland (MS); Department of Pathology, University of Oulu, POB 5000, Oulu, Finland (MJM); Department of Gastroenterology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (PL); and State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China (JY).
Yao Ye
Honghe Zhang
Maciej Szmitkowski
M J Mäkinen
Peiwei Li
Dajing Xia
Jun Yang
Yihua Wu
Han Wu
Medical University of Białystok · PL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The application of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the diagnosis and prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been evaluated in many studies, whereas the results were contradictive.The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate this issue.An original study was conducted to explore the diagnostic value of serum IL-6 in CRC. Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane library databases were searched for eligible studies.For diagnostic meta-analysis, aggregate data (AD) and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses were both adopted. The sensitivity and specificity were pooled and a summary receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed. For prognostic meta-analysis, study-specific hazard ratios (HRs) of IL-6 for survival were summarized. Secondary analysis of survival data was performed to synthesize the Kaplan-Meier curves.Total 17 studies (including our study) were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under curve (AUC) of serum IL-6 were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.46-0.88), 0.74 (95% CI: 0.56-0.86), and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.75-0.82) in CRC diagnosis, respectively. Further, IPD meta-analysis strengthened the diagnostic value of serum IL-6 (the AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.794, 0.606, and 0.839, respectively). For prognostic analysis, the high serum level of IL-6 was inversely associated with overall survival (OS) (pooled HR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.42-2.19, P < 0.001) and disease-free survival (DFS) (pooled HR = 2.97, 95% CI: 1.76-5.01, P < 0.001). The synthesized Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that CRC patients with higher serum IL-6 level had a worse OS (P = 0.0027) and DFS (P < 0.001), which further support the prognostic value of serum IL-6 in CRC patients.The present study confirmed that serum IL-6 may be a potential biomarker for CRC diagnosis, and the high serum IL-6 level was associated with poor prognosis for both CRC overall survival and disease-free survival. The study has been registered in an international registry of systematic reviews PROSPERO (CRD42013006485).

Indexed as

Biomarkers, TumorColorectal NeoplasmsHumansInterleukin-6PrognosisBiomarkers, TumorIL6 protein, humanInterleukin-6

Identifiers

PMID26765465
PMCPMC4718291
OpenAlexW2313405898

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.