Serum Soluble Interleukin‐2 Receptor α Levels in Patients With Gynecologic Cancers: Early Effect of Surgery

PROBLEM: To determine the early effect of abdominal cytoreductive surgery on serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor alpha (sIL-2R alpha) levels in patients with ovarian and cervical cancer, and to determine if the extent of cytoreduction correlated with the changes in serum sIL-2R alpha. METHOD: Thirty-nine patients with gynecologic cancer had serum sIL-2R alpha measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay before abdominal cytoreductive surgery and once in the early postoperative period. RESULTS: Only patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer had elevated preoperative serum sIL-2R alpha levels. In 20 of 25 ovarian cancer cases (80%) and 10 of 14 cervical cancer cases (71.4%) the postoperative serum sIL-2R alpha levels exceeded the preoperative level (P = .003 and P = .011, respectively). Overall, the mean postoperative serum sIL-2R alpha level was greater than the preoperative level (P = .0001). CONCLUSION: Patients with early stage gynecologic cancer did not have elevated serum sIL-2R alpha levels before surgery. In the early postoperative period the serum sIL-2R alpha level was increased, which may be a nonspecific response to the trauma of surgery. Soluble IL-2R alpha may be one of the factors responsible for the immunosuppression in the early postoperative period, but may also herald a surge of activated T cells.