IL6 and cancer: On the other hand, several preclinical studies showed that in an androgen-depleted setting or upon treatment with IL-6, EGF or other agents that elevate the intracellular cyclic AMP, luminal type cancer cells could undergo a process of transdifferentiation to acquire the morphology and lineage specific markers of neuroendocrine cells [51–55], suggesting that neuroendocrine tumor cells could be alternatively derived from luminal cancer cells in response to the pressure of surviving in an androgen-depleted condition.