Production of interleukin-1 beta and tumour necrosis factor-alpha in patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours.

To assess the role of interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) in the physiological host defence mechanisms against malignancies, the production of these cytokines in sera, ascitic and cyst fluids and in the tumour tissues of patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours was studied. IL-1 beta was found neither in the sera nor in the ascitic fluids of these patients. It was also virtually absent from the cyst fluid samples. However, a mean value of 790 pg IL-1 beta/g tumour was found. Like IL-1 beta, TNF alpha was virtually absent in the serum samples. It was, however, detectable in the ascitic and cyst fluids and tumour tissues. The TNF alpha concentrations were highest in the tumour tissues, with a mean level of 328 pg/g tumour. When comparing the level of IL-1 beta and TNF alpha in patients with benign tumours to that seen in patients with malignant tumours, no differences in production were observed, regardless of the origin of the test samples. Our results indicate the production of IL-1 beta and TNF alpha in patients with ovarian tumours. More importantly, the finding that the production of these cytokines in patients with benign tumours is similar to that in patients with malignant tumours supports the conclusion that the production of these cytokines is more a nonspecific indicator of an inflammatory process than a specific response to a malignant process.