IL6 and cancer: In addition, the NLR is a convenient accessible biomarker that can be analyzed based on the whole blood cell count and has been reported to be associated with various diseases including inflammation, cerebral infarction, cancer, and trauma (12, 33–38). IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine and inflammatory biomarker produced in host response to infections and was evaluated for the validity, as a marker, in the diagnosis of sepsis in many studies (39–41).