The correlation between serum contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 and acute radiation pneumonitis in patients with lung cancer

Objective: To explore the correlation between contents of serum transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and acute radiation pneumonitis (RP) in patients with lung cancer. Methods: A total of 138 patients with non-small cell lung cancer receiving threedimensional conformal radiation therapy in our hospital from May 2012 to October 2015 were selected as the research objects. According to the presence or absence of RP in the process of radiotherapy, those patients were divided into the RP group and non RP group to detect the contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in serum. Results: Before radiotherapy, there was no significant difference in the serum contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in the RP group and non RP group. At weeks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 after radiotherapy, the serum contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in patients of the RP group were all higher than those in the non RP group. Differences of the contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in each time point after radiotherapy between two groups had statistical significance (P < 0.05). In RP group, the higher the RP grade was, the more the serum contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 became. Differences of the contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in patients with different RP grade were statistically significant in each time point (P < 0.05). Conclusions: In the process of radiotherapy, the increase of the serum contents of TGF-beta 1 and IL-6 in patients with lung cancer is closely related to the occurrence of acute RP.