Interleukin-6 and its receptor, key players in hepatobiliary inflammat
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I re-read the section of the study called “IL-6 and cholangiocarcinoma”.
The study says that IL-6 is a very useful test to establish the initial CCA diagnosis. This is because…
(a) IL-6 measures inflammation
(b) CCA has a strong association with chronic inflammationThey quoted some prior studies that confirmed this.
On the other hand, the study does NOT say anything about the usefulness of IL-6 as a monitoring test (a test that can catch CCA recurrence as early as possible).
Hi,eli,
YES, it is not a common lab test performed by the hospitals and clinical labs the physicians offices used. But I think you can try to ask the doctor to order it for your wife and see what will the oncologist will say about the test at least.
God bless.Percy,
The fact that LEF offers IL-6 test on the internet (and charges $100 for it) tells me it’s not a common test that can be easily ordered from a local lab.
Of course, that’s just a speculation I have.
Marion,
We see the oncologist tomorrow, the day before chemo. I will twist his arm to start doing CA 19-9 on a regular basis. If twisting his arm doesn’t work, I will put him in a headlock. (kidding)
We saw our surgeon last week. I asked him about CA 19-9. He said it’s useful for monitoring purposes IF it was high at the time of diagnosis, before surgery. In other words, the tumor showed an ability to raise CA 19-9. If CA 19-9 was in normal range before surgery, then it’s not as useful for monitoring. I had a brain cramp and forgot to ask the surgeon to look up my wife’s CA 19-9 at the time of diagnosis (the only time she did CA 19-9). I will ask the oncologist to check.
The surgeon also said that he would be quite happy to order CA 19-9 if we can’t convince the oncologist to do it.
Eli
eli….unless your wife lacks the Lewis antigen I don’t understand why the phsycian is not using the CA 19-9 as baseline, at the beginning of chemotherapy treatment. It is considered an aid in the evaluation of response of patient.
Sorry, don’t know anything about the other blood test.
All my best wishes,
MarionHi,eli,
I use CRP(C- reactive protein) ,which your doctor can order from any lab or hospital to monitor the inflammation process.
I asked my oncology before to order IL-6 for me and he said hospitals don’t performed IL-6 testing and he seems not that of interest to him since he has already got my “chemo sensitivity report.
But I saw you can order it thru the internet;http://www.lef.org/Vitamins…/Interleukin-6-IL6-Blood-Test.html .
I don’t know whether this kind of place will provide the same standard as the hospital or clinical lab do.
God blessGavin, thank you for posting this study.
Here’s the part of the study that I found very interesting:
Quote:Similar to HCC, increased levels of IL-6 have been demonstrated in serum from CCA patients. IL-6 levels in one study were not only elevated in CCA patients compared to healthy controls, but they were elevated to a greater extent in CCA than in HCC or colorectal cancer patients (121). In addition, serum IL-6 levels correlated with tumor burden and were significantly decreased two weeks after surgical resection of CCA. Other studies have evaluated the potential for IL-6 as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in CCA. Tangkijvanich et al. showed that detectable levels of IL-6 (0.18 ng/mL) were able to distinguish between CCA and benign biliary disease with a sensitivity and specificity of 71.1% and 90%, respectively (122). The authors propose that IL-6 in combination with CA-19-9, a conventional tumor marker for CCA, may provide superior diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity. It should be noted that this study was performed using patients from Thailand where CCA is particularly prevalent, presumably due to high rates of Opisthorchis viverrini infestation. Another study performed in Korea showed that IL-6, at a cut-off value of 0.25 ng/ml, provides a sensitivity and specificity of 73% and 92%, respectively. This study also examined the effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on levels of IL-6. PDT is an emerging treatment for CCA in which an intravenous photosensitizer is administered followed by illumination at the appropriate wavelength. This treatment leads to an apoptotic and anti-angiogenic response (123). Interestingly, in CCA patients following PDT, IL-6 serum levels dropped approximately 7-fold, again suggesting an important relationship between IL-6 and CCA (124).My wife is starting the next round of chemo on Tuesday. She doesn’t have a measurable tumor that can be used to monitor chemo effectiveness. Our oncologist already told us that CA-19-9 isn’t a reliable test. Too many false positives/negatives. So, basically, we will be “shooting in the dark”. Endure six cycles of very toxic regimen and hope for the best.
I want to ask the oncologist to start testing CA-19-9 and IL-6. It’s possible that we won’t get any useful feedback from the tests. But, at the very least, we will establish a baseline that can be used for future surveillance.
Percy or anyone else:
How common is IL-6 blood test?
Can a regular hospital lab test it?
Is it expensive to test?Thanks!
Hi Percy,
You’re welcome, always glad to be of help. I hope that the link on IL-6 will be of use and interest to you, and if I find anything else on IL-6 then I will post it here for you. And of course I will say hi to my mum from you. Yes our Bears, hmmm, it doesn’t look good for us now. Losing Cutler and Forte was a huge blow, but still, I was expecting more from the offense even without them. Can’t keep relying on the D to pull us through. But, it’s not over yet, always the optimist here!!
Take care.
Gavin
Hi,Gavin,
IL-6 and inflammation relationship is one of the subject I am looking for lately.
I down load it but have not read it yet,
A big thanks for saving my time.
again, make sure to say hi to your mum;the BEAR are in hibernation,may be next year.
God bless.Interleukin-6 and its receptor, key players in hepatobiliary inflammation and cancer.
http://www.amepc.org/tgc/article/view/71/58
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