Interferon (IFN)-lambdas, including IFN-lambda1, IFN-lambda2, and IFN-lambda3, are a newly described group of
cytokines distantly related to the type I IFNs and
IL-10 family members. Besides the
antiviral activity, IFN-lambdas were reported to inhibit various
tumor growths in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we identified
IFN-lambda genes from the genome sequences of the human, chimpanzee, macaque, orangutan, mouse, rat and dog, and found that the locations and copy of a specific
IFN-lambda varied in different genomes, not just the copy of IFN-lambdas. We found human IFN-lambdas were expressed in fetal retina, fetal brain and T cells by ESTs search. Moreover, IFN-lambdas were also found to express in
bladder cancer,
blood cancer,
breast cancer,
glioma,
head and neck cancer and
lung cancer tissues. Three
tumor-related transcriptional factors (
steroidogenic factor-1,
Wilms tumor 1 and P53) binding sites were identified within the 1.0-kb regions upstream of the transcriptional start site of human IFN-lambdas. Meta-analysis of the prognostic value of
IFN-lambda genes in various
cancers showed that the expression of IFN-lambdas are indeed related to the
cancer prognosis in certain types of
cancer. It can be predicted that IFN-lambdas take part in the
cancer development by the regulation of expression of IFN-lambdas related to the SF-1, P53 and WT-1.