Infantile
hemangioma sometimes grows rapidly to a significant size around the first 2 months of life, which can be problematic and even destroy normal tissue. However, it is very difficult to predict the
tumor growth at the first visit and to decide necessity of treatment. Therefore the identification of the
biomarkers that can indicate a tendency to grow is clinically very important. In the present study, we evaluated the possibility that serum
cytokine levels are available as the marker of
hemangioma growth. Progressive
hemangioma was defined as a lesion showing increased
tumor size and/or coloration two weeks before and after the serum sampling, and we used membrane array to compare the twenty
cytokine profiles between the sera of 3 progressive
hemangioma patients and sex-/age-matched non-progressive
hemangioma patients. As a result, many of the 20
cytokines were detected in the patients' sera. When a 2-fold difference in the mean levels of each group was considered meaningful, 6 of the 20
cytokines (IGF-1, IL-6, IL-8, PIGF,
RANTES, TGF-β1) were down-regulated in the progressive
hemangioma group compared to the non- progressive
hemangioma group, and there were statistically significant difference (p < 0.05): especially,
IGF-1,
IL-6,
IL-8, PIGF, and TGF-β1 did not expressed in all 3 progressive
hemangioma patients. Accordingly, complicated
cytokine network by these multiple
cytokines may control the pathogenesis, and these
cytokine levels may become clinically useful
tumor markers. Furthermore,
immunotherapy against them will be novel therapeutic approach.