interleukin-4 mrna expression in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma patients with or without lymph node involvement

background : interleukin (il)-4 is a member of t helper 2 (th2) axis produced by t-lymphocyte and mast cell. it has been shown that il-4 expression changes in tumor tissues. the main objective of this study is to investigate the expression of il-4 mrna in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (lscc) with or without lymph node involvement. materials and methods: mrna expression of il-4 in lscc tissues were detected by quantative real-time pcr (qrt-pcr). expression of il-4 gene was compared between lymph node positive and negative patients with squamous cell carcinoma of larynx. results: no statistically significant association was found in expression of il-4 between lymph node positive and negative patients. conclusion: it seems that il-4 has no important effect on the involvement of lymph node in lscc. however, to achieve a definite conclusion more investigations are certainly required.