The effect of chemotherapy on the number of the CD4~+ CD25~+ Foxp3~+ Treg cells in the peipheral blood of patients with lung cancer

Objective To investigate the effect of chemotherapy on Treg(CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cell) in the peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer.Methods Samples of the peripheral blood of 60 patients with lung cancer were collected on the day before chemotherapy and the 10th day after chemotherapy.The proportions of Treg and CD3+,CD4+,and CD8+T cells in the total amount of T cells were evaluated by flow cytometry.Results The percentage of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ Treg cells in peripheral blood of the patients with NSCLC pre-chemotherapy was significantly higher than that in healthy donors.The percentage of Treg cells in stage-Ⅳ patients was higher than in stage-Ⅲ patients(P0.05).After chemotherapy,the percentage of Treg cells was decreased(P0.05).There were no significant differences between squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma(P0.05).No statistical significance was found in the percentage of CD3+and CD4+T cells in the peripheral blood between the samples before and after chemotherapy(P0.05).After chemotherapy,The proportion of CD8+T cells in T lymphocytes increased(P0.05),but CD4+/CD8+decreased(P0.05).Conclusion The proportion of CD4+CD25+regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients was increased and correlated with different stages of the disease.Chemotherapy may inhibit tumor through reducing Treg in the peripheral blood of patients with lung cancer.