Investigation on the clinical utility of serum interleukins dosage in differentiated thyroid Carcinomas

Abstract

Thyroid nodules are detectable in half of the population examined by ultrasound, but thyroid cancer affects no more than 10 to 20 individuals per 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, the incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) has been increasing and the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) projects the occurrence of 10,590 new cases of thyroid cancer, with an estimated risk of 11 cases per 100,000 women for the year of 2012. The widespread use of image methods in a population that is aging, and environmental factors related to this increased incidence have been causing a significant increase in the number of thyroidectomies, often because of small lesions whose long-term evolution remains uncertain. Thus, markers designed to distinguish malignancy in thyroid nodules and devise better management and monitoring strategies have been actively sought. Our group and others have demonstrated that thyroid neoplastic cells are associated with a molecular profile and an immune response that can be related to malignancy and aggressiveness. In a prior publication, we demonstrated that interleukin (IL) 10, but not IL-18 could be involved in the immune response against the DTC. Thus, this study aims to determine whether other ILs are associated with DTC and can be used as serological markers for diagnosis and/or prognosis. For this purpose, we will use the ELISA technique to study serum IL-2, IL-4, IL-4R (Receptor), IL-6, IL-6R (Receptor), IL8, IL-10, IL-12 (A and B ) of 100 individuals from the Thyroid Cancer Unit of HC-Unicamp with DTC and 100 control subjects whose ultrasonographic evaluation resulted negative for the presence of thyroid nodules. This project is included in an ongoing research line of our group (Analysis of biomarkers of immune response in cancer. Project PNPD-CAPES; Evaluation of the potential practical utility of serum markers for thyroid cancer. FAPESP-09542, Study on the mechanisms of tumor immune-evasion employed by differentiated thyroid carcinomas. FAPESP-00394-0) involving several pos graduated and under graduated students (FAPESP-2009/17634-7; 2010/11769-5; 2011/20704-1).(AU)