Table 1.
Circulating cytokine levels in cachectic cancer patients. Median levels of GDF15 and Activin A are expressed as ng/mL; the concentrations of all other cytokines are expressed as pg/mL. Abbreviations: Non‐Ca = non‐cachectic cancer patients; Ca [all] = all cachectic cancer patients; Pre‐Ca = pre‐cachectic cancer patients; Ca = cachectic cancer patients; Ref‐Ca = cancer‐refractory cachectic patients. Statistical significance between the groups was determined by the non‐parametric t‐test
| Cytokine | Mean levels | P value | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Ca (n = 43) | Pre‐Ca (n = 28) | Ca (n = 49) | Ref‐Ca (n = 65) | Ca [all] (n = 142) | No‐Ca vs. Pre‐Ca | No‐Ca vs. Ca | No‐Ca vs. Ref‐Ca | No‐Ca vs. Ca [all] | |
| GDF15 a | 2.67 | 5.44 | 5.02 | 5.70 | 5.42 | 0.007 | 0.025 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| ACTIVIN Aa | 0.62 | 1.03 | 1.05 | 1.53 | 1.27 | 0.007 | 0.028 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| IL‐6 | 21.89 | 27.29 | 30.39 | 35.61 | 32.23 | 0.024 | 0.117 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| IL‐8 | 41.74 | 47.56 | 48.94 | 63.77 | 55.58 | 0.206 | 0.764 | 0.000 | 0.007 |
| IP‐10 | 985 | 1832 | 1040 | 1131 | 1232 | 0.070 | 0.152 | 0.067 | 0.041 |
| MIP‐1β | 51.56 | 54.76 | 61.03 | 58.95 | 58.88 | 0.168 | 0.145 | 0.074 | 0.055 |
| VEGF | 36.40 | 50.88 | 49.43 | 51.21 | 50.53 | 0.712 | 0.286 | 0.013 | 0.063 |
| IL‐15 | 3.15 | 4.04 | 10.12 | 5.86 | 6.99 | 0.312 | 0.062 | 0.145 | 0.072 |
| RANTES | 1284 | 1540 | 2265 | 1332 | 1694 | 0.725 | 0.026 | 0.198 | 0.089 |
| IL‐10 | 16.99 | 55.68 | 20.59 | 32.00 | 32.52 | 0.750 | 0.374 | 0.036 | 0.119 |
| PDGF‐BB | 685 | 879 | 1167 | 933 | 1004 | 0.342 | 0.112 | 0.042 | 0.141 |
| IL‐2 | 12.91 | 13.91 | 20.81 | 18.08 | 18.24 | 0.715 | 0.144 | 0.159 | 0.148 |
| IL‐12_P70 | 42.88 | 88.49 | 71.26 | 65.80 | 71.97 | 0.782 | 0.390 | 0.060 | 0.156 |
| GM‐CSF | 6.22 | 1.27 | 14.20 | 8.17 | 8.95 | 0.332 | 0.087 | 0.380 | 0.184 |
| IL‐1Rα | 282.9 | 300.7 | 369.4 | 419.2 | 379.6 | 0.890 | 0.809 | 0.077 | 0.286 |
| TNFα | 105.8 | 108.8 | 126.0 | 150.0 | 133.9 | 0.959 | 0.665 | 0.137 | 0.329 |
| IL‐17 | 46.57 | 44.78 | 62.90 | 51.21 | 54.10 | 0.829 | 0.195 | 0.353 | 0.329 |
| IL‐13 | 14.78 | 51.31 | 16.90 | 14.49 | 22.27 | 0.719 | 0.955 | 0.113 | 0.341 |
| IL‐4 | 8.82 | 8.73 | 9.20 | 10.84 | 9.87 | 0.910 | 0.871 | 0.115 | 0.388 |
| MCP‐1 | 34.43 | 43.35 | 40.80 | 39.82 | 40.82 | 0.735 | 0.523 | 0.658 | 0.554 |
| IL‐1β | 6.82 | 6.83 | 7.13 | 8.79 | 7.85 | 0.992 | 0.913 | 0.238 | 0.565 |
| IFNγ | 211.5 | 206.6 | 217.8 | 296.6 | 252.4 | 0.810 | 0.779 | 0.187 | 0.611 |
| EOTAXIN | 102.8 | 111.7 | 223.1 | 130.7 | 159.1 | 0.297 | 0.274 | 0.654 | 0.618 |
| MIP‐1α | 9.05 | 8.40 | 9.73 | 10.11 | 9.65 | 0.551 | 0.748 | 0.389 | 0.670 |
| IL‐7 | 21.34 | 33.21 | 22.31 | 23.92 | 25.12 | 0.739 | 0.629 | 0.203 | 0.707 |
| G‐CSF | 236.21 | 176.57 | 184.29 | 196.30 | 188.42 | 0.805 | 0.856 | 0.345 | 0.726 |
| IL‐9 | 40.44 | 159.65 | 300.74 | 76.41 | 169.71 | 0.898 | 0.696 | 0.910 | 0.796 |
| bFGF | 50.33 | 43.08 | 62.49 | 52.10 | 53.99 | 0.214 | 0.756 | 0.402 | 0.813 |
| IL‐5 | 8.29 | 18.76 | 8.87 | 8.90 | 10.75 | 0.579 | 1.000 | 0.474 | 0.822 |
a
Levels of markers expressed as ng/mL of plasma; otherwise pg/mL of plasma.