Neoplasma Vol.56, No.1, p.56-62, 2009

Several biochemical pathways can lead to cancer cachexia, one of which involves the elevation of the cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interferon γ (INF-γ). It was suggested that TNF-α and INF-γ genes polymorphisms may influence these cytokines serum levels, but published data are still controversial. The aim of our study was to assess the clinical significance of -308G/A TNF-α and +874A/T INF-γ genes polymorphisms as well as TNF-α and INF-γ serum levels in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) and chronic pancreatitis (CP) as regards to healthy volunteers.

We studied 41 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, 56 with chronic pancreatitis and 50 healthy volunteers. Peripheral venous blood samples were obtained from all patients for TNF-α and INF-γ serum concentrations measurement. After DNA isolation TNF-α and INF-γ genes polymorphisms have been studied using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Plasma levels of TNF-α were significantly higher in PA patients (32.7 pg/ml) compared with CP patients (3.2 pg/ml) and control group (<1.6 pg/ml; p<0.01). Similarly, plasma levels of INF-γ in PA patients (12.7 pg/ml) were higher from those in CP and control group (<7.1 pg/ml; p<0.01). In contrast, there were no differences between CP patients and healthy volunteers in INF-γ levels. We observed a trend toward a correlation between weight loss in PA patients and TNF-α serum level (p=0.02). The TNF-α and INF-γ genotype distribution were similar in patients with PA, CP and control group. We have not observed any association between TNF-α and INF-γ serum levels and their genes polymorphisms.

Our results suggest that elevated TNF-α serum level may have clinical significance in the development of cachexia in PA patients. -308G/A TNF-α and +874A/T INF-γ genes polymorphisms probably do not play important role in pancreatic diseases.