Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27467926›Full record

ReviewOncoimmunology2016

Cytokine patterns in cancer patients: A review of the correlation between interleukin 6 and prognosis.

Bodo E Lippitz, Robert A Harris

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Oncoimmunology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 158 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
158citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
9.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% 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

158 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 232 citations in OpenAlex.

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  11. 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
  12. Article
  13. Baseline IL-6 independently predicts severe immune-related toxicity and poor survival in advanced gastric cancer treated with immunotherapy.Gastric cancer : official journal of the International Gastric Cancer Association and the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association · 2026
    Article
  14. Review
  15. Iron, inflammation, and intestinal tumors: the crucial triad in colorectal cancer progression and therapy.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026
    Review
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  20. Article

98 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

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Bodo E LippitzDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden.
Robert A HarrisDepartment of Clinical Neuroscience, Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet , Stockholm, Sweden.
Karolinska Institutet · SE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveIn tumor patients, IL-6 appears to be one component of a consistent cancer-associated cytokine network resulting in both a systemic immune stimulation and a microenvironment of cancer-induced immune suppression that ultimately protects the cancer cells. IL-6 has been associated with prognosis in cancer patients, but so far a systemical analysis has not been carried out.

methodsThe present meta-analysis studies the relation between IL-6 serum levels and the prognosis of cancer patients in the available clinical literature of 100 articles published between 1993 and 2013 comprising 11,583 patients.

resultsThe IL-6 serum level was described as significantly correlating with survival in 82/101 series comprising 85.6% of patients (9917/11,583) with 23 different cancer types. A total of 64 studies dichotomized patient cohorts according to various cut-off IL-6 serum levels: in 59/64 of these series corresponding to 94.5% of the reported patients (7694/8142) significant correlations between IL-6 serum level and survival were seen. The median survival of cancer patients had been determined above various cut-off levels of serum IL-6 in 24 dichotomized studies (26 cohorts). There was a highly significant inverse correlation between median survival of the cohorts with IL-6 serum level above cut-off (1272 patients) and their corresponding IL-6 cut-off values (Spearman R -0,48 p= < 0.001) following a linear regression when both parameters were log-transformed (p < 0.001). A significant correlation between increasing serum IL-6 and tumor stage or metastases was described in 39/44 studies and 91% of published patients (4221/4636) where clinical parameters had been specified.

conclusionsClosely associated with the patient's clinical condition and independent of the cancer histology, the increased IL-6 serum level uniformly appears to correlate with survival as paraneoplastic condition in later cancer stages independent of the cancer type. Modifications of this paraneoplastic immune reaction may offer new therapeutic options in cancer.

Indexed as

CancercytokinesIL-6Interleukin 6Paraneoplastic; Swedenprognosis

Identifiers

PMID27467926
PMCPMC4910721
OpenAlexW2365037335

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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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.