Frequency of regulatory T cells and its relationship with survival rate in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the amount of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in the circulation of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) and the survival rate.We employed flow cytometry to analyze the relative proportions of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in liver tissues and peripheral blood of 20 HCC patients and of healthy volunteers.After 3 years of follow-up,we retrospectively analyzed the patients.We found that the percentage of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells around the tumor tissues was 3.24%±1.42%,and the percentage of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood of HCC patients was 3.19%±1.56%,both of them were higher than those of the healthy volunteers 2.05%±1.20%(P 0.05).Furthermore,the frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells is positively correlated the pathological stages of HCC,but negatively correlated with the survival of HCC.We concluded that CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells may attenuate the anti-tumor immune responses of HCC patients.