[Prospective study of the levels of serum cytokines in patients with melanoma: prognostic value]

The production of cytokines plays a primordial role in the immune systems fight against tumors. Therefore, we proposed to investigate whether the serum levels of different types of cytokines in melanoma patients were associated with the evolution of their disease.We analyzed the variation in the serum levels of cytokines representative of the Th1 (INFg and IL-15) and Th2 (IL-6 and IL-10) phenotypes in 33 patients with primary cutaneous melanoma. Peripheral blood samples were obtained every six months until we had a total of 4 samples per patient.After 30 months, 29 patients (87.9 %) had survived with no signs of recurrence. Basal IL-10 serum levels were higher in the group of patients who expired than in the survivors. Among the patients who expired, an increase in IL-6 serum levels was observed in the last sample. No relationship could be proven between INFg and IL-15 levels and melanoma progression.Determining the levels of type Th2 cytokines (IL-6 and IL-10) in the serum of melanoma patients could be useful in the clinical follow-up of these patients and serve as a predictive factor for the progression of the disease, with the prognosis being worse for patients with high IL-10 and IL-6 levels. On the other hand, determining the serum levels of type Th1 cytokines (IL-15 and INFg) does not seem to be as useful in predicting the prognosis.