Table 2. The mean ± standard deviation values of plasma cytokine levels of lung cancer patient’ pre- and post-anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment in three tumor response subgroups. Statistical comparisons across the mean values in pre- and post-anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment were made by paired two-tailed Student’s t-tests.
| Cytokines (pg/mL) | PR | SD | PD | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre | Post | P | Pre | Post | P | Pre | Post | P | |||
| IFN-α2 | 25.57±15.94 | 10.98±7.08 | 0.5061 | 22.36±13.06 | 28.05±15.73 | 0.2269 | 31.83±19.30 | 3.83±1.07 | 0.1816 | ||
| IFN-γ | 9.39±7.16 | 4.50±0.67 | 0.3923 | 10.65±4.76 | 33.19±22.68 | 0.3601 | 5.05±1.36 | 64.71±42.39 | 0.1908 | ||
| TNF-α | 2.70±0.55 | 4.53±0.80 | 0.0709 | 3.48±0.33 | 14.30±7.18 | 0.16 | 2.72±0.49 | 3.56±0.79 | 0.3467 | ||
| IL-6 | 2.71±0.40 | 4.26±0.69 | 0.0049** | 7.01±1.43 | 15.99±6.69 | 0.2371 | 4.38±0.49 | 5.22±0.90 | 0.2283 | ||
| IL-8 | 6.14±2.01 | 3.04±0.21 | 0.1479 | 11.15±5.46 | 15.48±9.86 | 0.3787 | 7.35±1.56 | 14.32±5.83 | 0.2643 | ||
| IL-17A | 3.48±0.50 | 5.78±0.96 | 0.0925 | 4.22±0.67 | 4.66±0.70 | 0.5518 | 18.37±8.54 | 6.82±1.07 | 0.1619 | ||
| IL-18 | 139.88±60.94 | 96.67±41.19 | 0.048* | 132.86±23.61 | 157.67±29.49 | 0.5573 | 76.89±20.22 | 141.65±46.73 | 0.0915 | ||
| CCL2 (MCP-1) | 262.13±70.16 | 92.84±36.6 | 0.0787 | 166.23±32.51 | 119.68±32.63 | 0.2424 | 137.20±28.75 | 96.12±28.09 | 0.3118 | ||
| CCL4 (MIP-1β) | 24.86±7.45 | 30.97±12.30 | 0.4606 | 66.30±26.08 | 62.09±19.77 | 0.6309 | 27.49±6.02 | 26.70±7.20 | 0.8257 | ||
| CCL5 (RANTES) | 752.78±256.39 | 1,326.13±235.19 | 0.0464* | 751.39±152.96 | 935.83±122.79 | 0.1769 | 1,112.13±218.33 | 828.33±146.37 | 0.2528 | ||
| CCL11 (EOTAXIN) | 64.29±17.94 | 54.63±19.59 | 0.728 | 74.93±12.58 | 96.87±22.86 | 0.3685 | 45.29±7.80 | 53.02±11.14 | 0.6065 | ||
| CCL17 (TARC) | 56.69±10.19 | 52.89±14.84 | 0.7358 | 71.04±11.87 | 63.59±12.10 | 0.5363 | 57.85±12.27 | 39.71±7.88 | 0.2222 | ||
| CCL20 (MIP-3α) | 6.02±1.81 | 12.81±6.32 | 0.204 | 14.08±6.23 | 16.08±5.97 | 0.4521 | 7.05±1.10 | 8.13±2.18 | 0.5313 | ||
| CXCL1 (GROα) | 14.97±3.54 | 29.32±11.21 | 0.1668 | 74.06±31.88 | 77.79±22.63 | 0.8113 | 53.66±17.95 | 47.51±14.50 | 0.7738 | ||
| CXCL5 (ENA-78) | 20.60±7.00 | 50.26±13.89 | 0.083 | 81.11±35.15 | 79.99±19.81 | 0.9675 | 28.88±13.32 | 92.75±33.89 | 0.0291* | ||
| CXCL10 (IP-10) | 12.95±6.24 | 87.10±20.24 | 0.0172* | 40.37±11.24 | 125.78±45.52 | 0.0568 | 110.43±21.51 | 56.09±18.78 | 0.021* | ||
| CXCL11 (I-TAC) | 4.03±0.73 | 5.58±1.24 | 0.1336 | 15.17±4.39 | 21.95±5.19 | 0.0348* | 6.54±0.98 | 8.45±2.22 | 0.2671 | ||
*, P<0.05; **, P<0.01. Pre, pre-treatment; post, post-treatment.