Reply to the letter by S. Niedzwecki regarding our article “Serum levels of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) in thyroid cancer patients”

Excerpt

We are content with Dr. Kapoor’s comment concerning the results of our study on potential clinical utility of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) determination in peripheral blood of thyroid cancer patients. We believe that articles cited by Dr. Kapoor include promising data elucidating the role of IL-1/ IL-1ra system in the development, progression and metastases formation of various endocrine-related cancers. In our opinion, the explanation of IL-1ra potential role in cancer development needs two-way researches. On the one hand, the direct impact of IL-1ra on cancer cells should be revealed, especially on the molecular level (gene polymorphism and mutation). On the other hand, the significance of the determination of the serum Il-1ra and other pro-inflammatory cytokines levels in processes accompanying human malignancy (e.g. inflammation, wound healing) remains to be elucidated. Furthermore, the close relationship between IL-1ra, interleukin-1 and interleukin-6 remains to be still up for discussion. …