In addition, in the comparison between patients with different outcome in terms of oral mucositis, patients that later developed oral mucositis were found to have higher concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, and IFN-γ) at the time of cancer diagnosis, which could be largely explained by the high proportion of cases with acute leukemia in this group (15 out of 24). This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and cancer.