Analysis of Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subsets in Patients with Esophageal Carcinoma

Background: The correlation between peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and clinicopathological parameters in patients with esophageal cancer is still controversial.Aims: To analyze the changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with esophageal carcinoma.Methods: Flow cytometry was conducted to determine the peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with(n=207) or without(n=33) esophageal carcinoma and normal controls(n=96),and their correlations with clinicopathological parameters were analyzed.Results: CD3+,CD4+,CD8+ and CD19+ cells in patients with esophageal carcinoma were significantly lower than those in normal controls(P0.01 or P0.05),while ratioof CD4 +/CD8 +,CD25 +,CD44 + and natural killer cells were significantly higher(P 0.01).There was no significant difference of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets between patients with tumor of stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ and stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ,poorly differentiated and moderately differentiated,with and without lymph node metastasis(P0.05).CD3+ and CD4+ cells inpatients without esophageal carcinoma were not significantly different from those in normal controls(P0.05),however,differences were seen in other lymphocyte subsets(P0.05).Conclusions: There are significant changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with esophageal carcinoma,which suggest disturbance of the immune system.However,changes of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets are not correlated with clinical stage and degree of malignancy.The immune function begins to recover at week 3 to 4 after surgery,CD3+ and CD4+ cells are sensitive indexes for early monitoring of immune status.