Synopsis: We found a significant increase in serum IL-6 levels of 214.9 ng/mL (95% CI: 60.1–369.7, p = 0.007) among women with cervical cancer (CC) compared to their cancer-free counterparts.

Objectives: Despite growing evidence of the role of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in CC, studies assessing this association among women of sub-Saharan African origin remain limited. This study investigated the association between serum IL-6 and CC and explored the effects of serum IL-6 levels on prognosis in patients with CC in Lagos, Nigeria.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among women with and without CC in two hospitals. A venous blood sample was collected from each participant for laboratory analysis of serum IL-6 levels. We performed simple and multiple linear regression analyses to compare the unit increase in serum IL-6 levels between study groups while adjusting for relevant confounders.

Results: Our study found a significant unit increase of 214.9 ng/mL (95%CI: 60.1–369.7, p = 0.007) in serum IL-6 levels among women with CC compared to their cancer-free counterparts. The area under the curve of 0.814 demonstrated a good discriminatory ability at an optimal serum IL-6 cut-off value of 365.1 ng/mL. IL-6 levels were significantly elevated in patients with advanced-stage CC compared to those with early-stage disease (156.7 (IQR: 130.4–227.6) versus 324.7 (IQR: 188.5–516.2) ng/mL) and in patients diagnosed with squamous cells carcinoma (SCC) compared to those without SCC (523.9 (IQR: 365.1–682.1) versus 203.6 (IQR: 131.3–334.3) ng/mL).

Conclusion: Our study findings highlight the potential utility of serum IL-6 as a biomarker for CC diagnosis and prognosis. However, further studies are needed to explore the utility of IL-6 as a target for therapeutic intervention and in the treatment monitoring of CC patients.