Interleukin-8 as a Surrogate Marker in Risk Stratification of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Introduction: When molecular and cytogenetic studies are not available, the risk stratification of AML patients will be difficult. This study was conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of IL-8 among AML patients with its relation to outcome. Methods: This is a cross sectional study; 42 newly diagnosed AML patients (<65 years) were investigated with determination of serum IL-8 by ELISA and followed up for 36 months. In addition, 20 sex and age matched normal volunteers were included as control. Results: In AML patients, serum IL-8 was ranging from 5 to 200 pg/mL with a mean of 76.5 pg/mL. It was significantly higher among AML patients when compared to the control (76.5 vs 32.3 pg/mL). The mean did not show any significant relationship to patients’ sex or the FAB classification of AML (p>0.05). While significant higher mean was observed among poor cytogenetic risk group (110.4 pg/mL) as well as among died patients (108.8 pg/mL) and refractory patients (84.2 pg/mL). In regard to survival, among those with IL-8>40 pg/mL, the mean survival time was higher in comparison to AML patients with IL-8 ≤ 40 pg/mL (34.6 months vs 26.3 months). Conclusion: This study concluded that serum IL-8 concentration at presentation of AML patients is high and it could be used as a marker for risk stratification for AML patients.