Interleukin-8: a tumor-agnostic biomarker integrating cancer biology and host response across solid tumors
Interleukin-8 (IL-8/CXCL8) drives tumor progression via CXCR1/2 signaling, promoting proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and recruitment of pro-tumoral immune and stromal cells. Accumulating clinical evidence indicates that elevated circulating or intratumoral IL-8 levels are consistently associated with adverse prognosis and reduced therapeutic benefit across principal solid tumors. In particular, IL-8 has emerged as a promising prognostic and predictive biomarker of resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors. This review highlights its prognostic and predictive value across gastrointestinal, genitourinary, lung, melanoma, breast, ovarian, and head and neck cancers, and discusses strategies targeting IL-8 and the need for standardized, clinically actionable assays.
Authors
- A. Avancini
- Michele Borghesani
- Sara Cingarlini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4786-4781)
- Ilaria Mariangela Scaglione
- Francesca Zacchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7448-7822)
- Chiara Bazzichetto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1648-3700)
- Elena Giontella
- Lorenzo Belluomini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1981-5499)
- Daniela Tregnago
- Fabiana Conciatori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8579-5222)
- Marco Sposito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6749-3214)
- Jessica Insolda
- Serena Eccher
- Sara Pilotto
- Elena Trevisani
- Michele Milella
Institutions
- University of Verona (IT)
- National Cancer Institute (MY)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cancer Treatment Reviews
- Published
- 2026-04-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctrv.2026.103135
- Primary Topic
- Chemokine receptors and signaling
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Fondazione Italiana per la ricerca sulle Malattie del Pancreas
- European Commission
- Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro
- Università degli Studi di Verona