The variable clinical responses seen with most cancer immunotherapy suggests that there is a large interindividual variation in immunologic response to tumors. One of the key functional parameters of an immune respones is the local production of
cytokines. These multifunctional cytokines have been implicated in growth stimulation and cytotoxicity of ovarian tumor cells.
To determine the presence and quantities of cytokines in ovarian cancer tissue, the constitutive expression of cytokine mRNA in biopsies from epithelial ovarian carcinomas was determined by using a PCR-assisted mRNA amplification assay(RT-PCR).
Using a
set of cytokine-specific primers for 14 different cytokines, distinctive patterns of cytokine gene expression between normal and amlignant ovarian tissues could be found. Several cytokines were detected even in the normal ovarian tissue including
IL-1α, IL-8, TGF-α, TGF-β, CM-CSF, and IL-2R.
In case of the ovarian cancer, the signals were more intense than normal and we could detect the expression of some other cytokines, with as IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF, and INF-r, which could not be detected in normal tissue.
The presence of cytokines in ovarian cancer tissue could be important in the growth and development of cancer, more specifically, in relation to host immune responsiveness.
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