Circadian rhythms of cytotoxic activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with malignant melanoma.

AIM

To study circadian rhythms (CR) of cytotoxic activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with malignant melanoma were compared with those in healthy men.

METHODS

The NK-cell and phagocyte cytotoxic activity in five patients with malignant melanoma stage I or II and 12 healthy donors has been assessed by radioimmune assay and NBT-test.

RESULTS

The circadian rhythmicity in NK-cells and phagocyte activity in all cancer patients under study has been disrupted. The extent of such disruption tended to increase in patients with more advanced cancer. The most typical alterations were discoordination between the cytotoxicity rhythms of NK-cells and phagocytes (synchronized in healthy persons) and alterations in basic rhythm parameters: phase shifts and amplitude damping.

CONCLUSION

In melanoma patients the significant alteration of CR in NK-cells and phagocytes cytotoxic activity was revealed. In spite of individual variations, the degree of the rhythm disruption basically depended on a disease stage. The alteration of CR phase and amplitude and discoordination between the rhythms of NK-cells and phagocyte were registered in all cases studied.