Influence of chemotherapy after radical surgery for gastric cancer on T cell subsets and NK cells in peripheral blood:An analysis of 32 cases

Objective To investigate the influence of chemotherapy after radical surgery for gastric cancer on the T cell subsets and NK cells in peripheral blood in order to understand the influence of chemotherapy on body immune function and investigate the importance and necessity of the chemotherapy.Methods Thirty-two patients receiving chemotherapy after radical surgery for gastric cancer from June 2007 to June 2010 of our hospital were selected as the observation group and 32 healthy examinees were selected as the control group.The changes of T lymphocyte subsets including CD3+ T cells,CD4+ T cells,CD8+ T cells and CD4+/CD8+ and NK cells in peripheral blood of the two groups were detected respectively.Results Of the 32 patients receiving chemotherapy after radial surgery for gastric cancer,complete remission(CR) was found in 17 patients,partial remission(PR) in 8 patients,no change(SD) in 5 patients and progress(PD) in 2 patients,with the total effective rate of 78.1%(25/32).The observation group was significantly lower than the healthy control group in the CD4+ T cells,CD4+/CD8+ and NK cells before the chemotherapy after radial surgery for gastric cancer.The CD4+ T cells,CD4+/CD8+ and NK cells significantly increased after 3 cycles of chemotherapy after radial surgery for gastric cancer compared with those before chemotherapy(P 0.05).Conclusion Chemotherapy after radial surgery for gastric cancer can improve the clinical efficacy for patients,whose immune function remarkably decreased compared with normal people,and can improve the expression levels of CD4+ T cells,CD4+/CD8+ and NK cells.