Relation between serum level of interleukin 6 and Cachexia in patients with post HCV Hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Cachexia is “a complex metabolic syndrome associated with underlying illness and characterizedby loss of muscle with or without loss of fat mass”. Cachexia is major cause of death associated with advanced Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Patients with cachexia show decreased body weight, mainly due to the loss of fat and skeletal muscle, progressive fatigue and anorexia, and biochemical abnormalities such as anemia, hypoalbuminemia, and increased CRP. Interleukin-6, one of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, is recognized as a potential mediator of the cachectic process. In this study, circulating IL-6 in advanced HCC is characterized to reveal the pathophysiology of cachexia. In one study, HCV infection alone was present in 91.32 ofHCC cases, HBV alone in 2.51%, combined HBV and HCV infection in 2.67% and in 3.5% of cases no viral infection was detected at all. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer death.In Egypt, liver cancer forms 1.68% of the total malignancies. HCC constitutes 70.48% of all liver tumors. There were several studies that performed to evaluate associations between cachexia and serum levels of IL-6 in patients with colorectal cancer, advanced pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and GIT cancer,there were no previous studies performed in patients with HCC presented with cachexia The aim of our study was to evaluate associations between Cachexia and serum levels of IL-6 in patients with HCV related hepatocellular carcinoma. Thestudywas conducted in Tropical Medicine department, Ain Shams university and the outpatient clinic ofAin Shams HCC unit,On 80 patients with HCV related HCC who classified into twogroups 40 patients with HCV related HCC and cachexia syndrome; They were 32 males and 8 females and 40 patients with HCV related HCC without cachexia syndrome, They were 35 males and 5 females).