IL6 and breast cancer: In the patients with progressive metastatic breast cancer (n = 65) the median serum Shh and IL-6 levels were 37.96 pg/mL and 172.2 pg/mL respectively ranging from 19.10 to 58.4 pg/mL for Shh and 89.47 to 301.4 pg/mL for IL-6 (Fig. 2A).