Interleukin 8 (IL-8) - a universal biomarker?

Many clinical conditions including various types of cancers are complex and generally require invasive, laborious, expensive and time-consuming investigations for their diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. There is therefore a general need for exploring non-invasive markers in clinical medicine. Interleukin 8 (IL-8) is currently being applied in various subspecialties of medicine either for the purpose of rapid diagnosis or as a predictor of prognosis. Nevertheless, there is need for large-scale studies to substantiate accuracy and outcome. This article will summarize current evidence suggesting that Interleukin 8 (IL-8) may serve as a useful biomarker.