Role of Interleukin-10 in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Cytokines are low molecular weight regulatory proteins or glycoprotein that modulates the intensity and duration of immune response by stimulating or inhibiting the activation, proliferation and/or differentiation of target cells. Different cytokines are known to have diverse role in breast cancer initiation and progression. Interleukin-10 (IL-10), a pleiotropic anti-inflammatory cytokine induces immunosuppression and assists in escape from tumor immune surveillance. Like several other cytokines, IL-10 also can exert dual proliferative and inhibitory effect on breast tumor cells indicating a complex role of IL-10 in breast cancer initiation and progression. In this review, we tried to put together a comprehensive current view on significance of IL-10 in promotion, inhibition and importance as prognosticator in breast cancer based on in vitro, in vivo and clinical evidences. For literature collection, we conducted PubMed search with keyword “IL-10”, “breast cancer”.