The role of interleukin-8 in cancer cells and microenvironment interaction.

Abstract Interleukin (IL)-8, a cytokine of the CXC chemokine family that was originally classified as a neutrophil chemoattractant, is now reported to play an important role in tumor progression and metastasis in a variety of human cancers, including lung cancers. IL-8 biologic activity in tumors and the tumor microenvironment may contribute to tumor progression through its potential function in the regulation of angiogenesis, cancer cell growth and survival, tumor cell motion, leukocyte infiltration and modification of immune responses. Recently, infiltrating macrophages in tumor stroma have been considered to be able to stimulate cancer growth, enhance angiogenesis and promote metastasis, and has prognostic significance in several human cancers. Accumulating evidence also shows that cancer cells and stromal cell interaction can stimulate cancer cells, as well as stromal cells in the expression of IL-8 and other growth factors. Here, we summarize current information about IL-8 biology in human lung cancers and focus on its effect on tumor angiogenesis, regulation of IL-8 expression in tumors, its prognostic significances, the role of tumor infiltrating macrophages in the production of IL-8 in cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment, gene expression profiles after cancer cell-stromal cell interaction, and the effect of a variety anti- inflammatory drugs on the modification of IL-8 and other gene expressions in cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment in lung cancers.