Table 4.

Cytokine levels in BALF of lung cancer patients compared to both healthy individuals and patients with other lung diseases

	Lung cancer	Non-lung cancer	Univariate analysis (p value)	Multivariate analysis (p value)
Fractalkine	19.53 (0.00–103.24)	37.02 (0.00–68.60)	0.615	0.518
GM-CSF	6.11 (0.30–18.82)	6.97 (4.08–11.72)	0.709	0.114
IFN-γ	0.09 (0.01–0.25)	0.01 (0.00–0.57)	0.543	0.762
IL-1b	0.37 (0.28–0.58)	0.28 (0.08–0.57)	0.006*	0.841
IL-2	1.47 (0.86–2.16)	0.75 (0.18–1.38)	< 0.001*	0.358
IL-4	0.00 (0.00–0.00)	0.00 (0.00–0.00)	0.019*	0.434
IL-5	0.19 (0.16–0.28)	0.19 (0.00–0.66)	0.396	0.389
IL-6	1.41 (0.64–5.30)	0.98 (0.53–2.52)	0.445	0.699
IL-7	4.18 (0.80–9.09)	6.94 (3.50–12.65)	0.006*	0.261
IL-8	48.85 (16.85–114.12)	17.71 (8.26–51.36)	0.002*	0.910
Il-10	0.78 (0.40–2.14)	1.98 (0.36–4.68)	0.317	0.596
IL-12b	0.04 (0.00–0.08)	0.00 (0.00–0.03)	< 0.001*	0.781
IL-13	0.00 (0.00–0.33)	0.24 (0.00–0.69)	0.048*	0.285
IL-17a	0.22 (0.22–0.22)	0.27 (0.22–0.73)	< 0.001*	0.309
IL-23	1.49 (0.00–1.49)	1.49 (0.00–21.44)	0.139	0.782
TNF-α	0.64 (0.14–1.28)	0.76 (0.42–1.63)	0.133	0.928

* = p < 0.05. Data are presented in median (IQR), cytokine levels in pg/ml

BALF bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, GM-CSF granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor, IFN-γ interferon gamma, IL interleukin, TNF-α tumor necrosis factor alpha