IL6 and prostate cancer: To date, however, it remains controversial whether IL-6 confers a malignant phenotype on prostate cancer cells, particularly under an androgen-deprived condition (Okamoto et al, 1997; Hobisch et al, 1998, 2001; Mori et al, 1999; Lou et al, 2000; Deeble et al, 2001; Lin et al, 2001; Ueda et al, 2002a, 2002b; Lee et al, 2003, 2007; Jia et al, 2004).