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Macrophage expression of interleukin-10 is a prognostic factor in nonsmall cell lung cancer

Depts of ¹ Experimental and Clinical Medicine, and ³ Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, ² Dept of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, University of Padua, Padua, and ⁴ Dept of Medicine, Oncology and Radiology, Section of Respiratory Diseases, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.

CORRESPONDENCE: P. Boschetto, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Sezione di Igiene e Medicina del Lavoro, Via Fossato di Mortara 64/b, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. Fax: 39 532205066. E-mail: bsp{at}unife.it

Keywords: Immunohistochemistry, interleukin-10, nonsmall cell lung cancer, prognosis, survival, tumour-associated macrophages

Received: October 4, 2006
Accepted May 15, 2007

Interleukin (IL)-10 is expressed in many solid tumours and plays an ambiguous role in controlling cancer growth and metastasis. In order to determine whether IL-10 is involved in tumour progression and prognosis in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), IL-10 expression in tumour cells and tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) and its associations, if any, with clinicopathological features were investigated.

Paraffin-embedded sections of surgical specimens obtained from 50 patients who had undergone surgery for NSCLC were immunostained with an antibody directed against IL-10. TAMs and tumour cells positive for IL-10 were subsequently quantified.

IL-10-positive TAM percentage was higher in patients with stage II, III and IV NSCLC, and in those with lymph node metastases compared with patients with stage I NSCLC. High IL-10 expression by TAMs was a significant independent predictor of advanced tumour stage, and thus was associated with worse overall survival. Conversely, IL-10 expression by tumour cells did not differ between stages II, III and IV and stage I NSCLC.

In conclusion, interleukin-10 expression by tumour-associated macrophages, but not by tumour cells, may play a role in the progression and prognosis of nonsmall cell lung cancer. These results may be useful in the development of novel approaches for anticancer treatments.