Association between IL-6 and prognosis of gastric cancer: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the common and fatal cancers. Even though the Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) staging system is the most classical staging system recognized worldwide, it has been controversial because there are various factors affecting the prognosis of GC patients. OBJECTIVES: The study aims to evaluate the relationship between interleukin-6 (IL-6) and several clinical indicators and construct a prognostic model to better predict the prognosis of GC. DESIGN: A retrospective study. METHODS: Data of 249 patients with GC diagnosed in GC center of West China Hospital were collected. Clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed to determine whether there were differences between IL-6 HIGH group and IL-6 LOW group. Besides, the association between the two groups and tumor marker levels was clarified. The K-M curves of 3- and 5-year were plotted with log-rank test. Afterward, we conducted univariate and multivariate analysis and a predicting nomogram. Significantly, C-index, and calibration were used to evaluate the value of nomogram in predicting prognosis. RESULTS: The overall survival of GC in the IL-6 HIGH and IL-6 LOW groups were 47.8 months (95% CI: 42.1–53.4) and 57.9 months (95% CI: 54.1–61.7), respectively, with significant differences (p = 0.0046). Average tumor size of GC (p = 0.000) and nerve invasion (p = 0.018) were statistically significant between two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that the factors affecting prognosis were IL-6 (<5.51 and ⩾5.51 pg/ml) (Hazard Ratio(HR): 1.665, 95% CI: 1.026–2.703, p = 0.039), N stage (HR: 1.336, 95% CI: 1.106–1.615, p = 0.003), and T stage (HR: 1.268, 95% CI: 0.998–1.611, p = 0.052), which were included in the nomogram with a C-index of 0.71. The current data calculated TNM staging C-index was 0.68, and the p-value for the difference between the two models was 0.08. Internal validation revealed that the predicted overall survival did not differ significantly from the actual observed patient survival. CONCLUSION: The differential expression of IL-6 has a tendency to differentiate the prognosis of GC patients. IL-6, N stage, and T stage are independent prognostic factors, and the new survival prognostic model consisting of the above three indicators is better than the classical TNM staging system. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study is a retrospective study, which does not require clinical registration.