Clinical significance of changes in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with lung cancer

Objective To investigate the baseline immunological status in patients with lung cancer by analyzing the changes in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets.Methods Lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry in 60 patients with lung cancer and 20 healthy controls.Results The lung cancer group had a lower percentages of CD3(+),CD4(+) lymphocytes,NK cell,and lower CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio than the control group(P0.05),and had a higher percentage of CD8(+) cells than the control group(P0.05).There was no significant difference in the percentages of CD19(+) cells between the lung cancer group and the control group(P0.05).Conclusion The immunologic functions in patients with lung cancer were generally compromised in comparison with a healthy population.Detection of the variations of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood may be used in the monitoring of immune function for patients with lung cancer.