IL6 and cancer: In addition, proinflammatory cytokines stimulate lipolysis and fat oxidation in humans (van Hall et al., 2003), and increased tumor-secreted IL-6 is characteristic in animal models of cancer cachexia (Strassmann et al., 1992; Das et al., 2011; Petruzzelli et al., 2014; Masri et al., 2016), as well as in cachectic cancer patients (Staal-van den Brekel et al., 1995; Weidle et al., 2010).