IL6 and cancer: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) – together with IL-1β and TNFα – is one of the major inflammatory cytokines, which is elevated in most if not all inflammatory states and has also been recognized as a frequent growth factor in many cancers (Grivennikov et al., 2009; Lesina et al., 2011; Garbers et al., 2018; Jones and Jenkins, 2018).