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Serum interleukin‐6 has no discriminatory role in paraproteinaemia nor a prognostic role in multiple myeloma
Author(s) -
C. G. Schaar,
Ulrich Kaiser,
Simone Snijder,
Francisca Ong,
J. Hermans,
Paul Franck,
Hanneke C. Kluin-Nelemans
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2141.1999.01669.x
Subject(s) - medicine , monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance , multiple myeloma , immunopathology , immunology , interleukin 6 , beta 2 microglobulin , gastroenterology , pathology , monoclonal , antibody , monoclonal antibody , cytokine
We determined interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) levels in the serum of 212 well‐defined patients with newly diagnosed paraproteinaemia and evaluated its discriminatory value and prognostic role in multiple myeloma (MM). Results were compared with serum neural cell adhesion molecule and β‐2‐microglobulin, both established prognostic MM markers. Paraproteinaemia‐related diagnoses were: MM (60), other haematological diseases (46), solid tumours (35), autoimmune diseases (17) and monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) (54). The range of IL‐6 levels in all diagnostic groups overlapped widely and did not serve as a discriminatory marker in newly diagnosed paraproteinaemia even when patients with infection or fever (42) were excluded. In MM high IL‐6 levels (50 pg/ml) were not associated with a shorter survival ( P = 0.24). We compared our results with 20 published studies on serum IL‐6 in paraproteinaemia and/or MM. IL‐6 data have to be related to the assay used (bio‐ or immunoassay) and to the status of MM (newly diagnosed, during therapy, progressive disease). We conclude that serum IL‐6 is not specific for paraproteinaemia‐related diseases and will not serve as a reliable discriminatory or prognostic marker in paraproteinaemia and MM.