LAUSR

Interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) and IL‐10 receptor (IL‐10R) single nucleotide polymorphisms have been implicated in the pathogenesis of many cancers. We investigated the influence of IL‐10 −592C/A, IL‐10RA I224V, and IL‐10RB K47E on the risk of developing multiple myeloma (MM) and the clinical features of MM. We extracted the genomic DNA from 128 MM patients and 202 healthy controls and used polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism method to detect IL‐10 promoter −592C/A (rs1800872), IL‐10RA (rs2228055), and IL‐10RB K47E (rs2834167) genotypes. Overall survival (OS) was defined as the interval from the date of diagnosis to the date of death or last clinical appointment. No statistically significant difference was observed in the genotype and allele frequencies of IL‐10 −592C/A, IL‐10RA I224V, and IL‐10RB K47E between MM patients and healthy controls. IL‐10RA II genotype was significantly associated with a hemoglobin level lower than that of IV and VV genotypes (mean ± standard deviation, 9.21 ± 2.46 vs 10.3 ± 2.33 g/dL; P = .021). IL‐10 −592 AA genotype was significantly associated with OS better than that of CA and CC genotypes (median OS, 74.5 vs 46.3 months; P = .047). We observed significant differences in survival between patients treated with thalidomide and/or bortezomib and those treated with conventional treatments (median OS, 74.5 vs 38.2 months; P = .021). Therefore, we also examined the effect of IL‐10 and IL‐10R polymorphisms on the clinical variables and OS of patients treated with thalidomide and/or bortezomib. In addition, IL‐10RB EE genotype was significantly associated with poorer survival than KK and KE genotypes (median OS, 46.3 vs 78.8 months; P = .015). Our findings indicate that IL‐10 and IL‐10R gene polymorphisms may not contribute to the susceptibility to MM but may be associated with the severity and prognosis of MM. In particular, IL‐10RB K47E polymorphism may contribute to the poor prognosis of MM patients treated with thalidomide and/or bortezomib.