Figure 3H and I show typical examples of IL-6 staining at different stages of disease. In addition, sIL-6R Ca/N expression ratios in patients whose cancer cells' cytoplasm were IL-6 immunoreactive were significantly lower than the ratios in patients with reduced cytoplasmic IL-6 immunoreactivity in cancer cells (0.78±0.41 vs 1.56±1.21; P=0.0015) (Table 3a). Table 3b shows the quantification of IL-6 immunoreactivity by ELISA, and the data showed that IL-6 immunoreactivity in cancer cells reflected increased IL-6 Ca/N ratios. Here, IL6 is linked to cancer.