IL-6 and IL-10 are associated with good prognosis in early stage invasive breast cancer patients

Macrophage-associated cytokines play an important role in cancer metastasis; however, the functions of interleukins (IL) 6 and 10 in breast cancer (BC) progression and metastasis are not clear. In this study the roles of IL-6/IL-10 in regulating vascular invasion and their prognostic significance in BC are investigated. MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 migration (± IL-6 or IL-10) was assessed by scratch wound assay. Cancer cell adhesion to IL-6/IL-10 stimulated blood and lymphatic endothelial cells (EC) was investigated. Expression of IL-6 /IL-10 was assessed using immunohistochemistry in an annotated cohort of early stage BC (n = 1380) and associations with clinicopathological variables and clinical outcome evaluated. IL-6 did not alter BC cell migration however a dose-dependent inhibition in MDA-MB-231 migration with IL-10 treatment was observed (P = 0.03). BC cells were more adhesive to blood vs lymphatic EC, however, IL-6/IL-10 had no effect on adhesion patterns. High expression of IL-6/IL-10 was associated with clinicopathological criteria (e.g. hormone receptor status, all P < 0.05), improved disease-free survival (DFS; P < 0.05) and improved BC-specific survival (BCSS; only IL-6, P = 0.017). However, neither IL-6 nor IL-10 expression were independent prognostic factors from multivariate analysis. In BC subgroups, IL-6 and IL-10 were good prognosticators in terms of DFS in non-basal, non-triple-negative (non-TN), ER-positive, PgR-positive (only IL-10), and Her-2-negative (only IL-6) BC (all P < 0.05). IL-6 was associated with improved BCSS in non-basal, ER-positive and non-TN BC (all P < 0.05). ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00262-017-2106-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.