Flow cytometric evaluation of lymphocyte subsets in non-treated neoplastic patients

The evaluation of lymphocyte subsets by means of monoclonal antibodies in neoplastic patients has provided different results, partly in relation to stage of the disease. This study can be useful for monitoring the immune system in cancer subjects treated with immunomodulating drugs. Patients and Methods. A flow cytometric evaluation of lymphocyte subsets was performed in 100 untreated cancer patients (breast carcinoma: 45 subjects; melanoma: 30; colorectal carcinoma: 25), before surgery, as the first step of a systematic analysis of the immune system in cancer patients. Significant increases of absolute blood concentrations of white blood cells, CD3/CD8-, CD3/CD25-, CD3/HLA-DR-positive T lymphocytes and CD16-CD56-positive natural killer cells were observed, However, different results were obtained in the 3 groups of neoplastic diseases: in the melanoma patients, no significant differences were observed in relation to the control group: subjects with colorectal carcinoma showed only an increase in activated T-lymphocytes, while women with breast carcinoma showed evident increases of various lymphocyte subsets. This study should be considered as a preliminary analysis for a better interpretation of lymphocyte subset modifications induced by immunomodulating drugs in neoplastic patients. Early observations in a group of neoplastic subjects treated with interleukin-2 demonstrated significant modifications of some lymphocyte subsets.