Zhou Qiang, Zhu Xue-Qiang, Zhang Jun, Xu Zhong-Lin, Lu Pei, Wu Feng
Clinical Center for Tumor Therapy of the 2nd Affiliated Hospital and Institute of Ultrasonic Engineering in Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2008 Jan;34(1):81-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2007.07.013. Epub 2007 Sep 14.
Immunosuppression in a patient with malignant tumor is a major obstacle in cancer treatment. In this study, we investigated changes in the circulating level of all measured immunosuppressive cytokines in patients with malignancy before and after high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. Fifteen patients with solid malignancy were enrolled in this study and an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) method was used to measure serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 10 (IL-10), respectively before and 1 wk after HIFU treatment. Among them, seven patients had distant metastasis and the remaining eight had no metastasis. All patients received one-session HIFU treatment for primary cancer, including complete ablation in eight patients without metastasis, and partial ablation in seven patients with metastases. The results showed that serum immunosuppressive cytokine levels decreased after HIFU treatment, and there were significant decreases of VEGF, TGF-beta1, and TGF-beta2 before and after HIFU treatment. Compared with the values in the metastatic patients, serum levels of immunosuppressive cytokines were significantly lower in the nonmetastatic patients after HIFU treatment. It is concluded that HIFU can decrease tumor-secreted immunosuppressive cytokine production in addition to its direct tumor destruction. This change may lessen tumor-induced immunosuppression and renew antitumor immunity after HIFU in cancer patients.
恶性肿瘤患者的免疫抑制是癌症治疗中的一个主要障碍。在本研究中，我们调查了高强度聚焦超声（HIFU）治疗前后恶性肿瘤患者所有检测的免疫抑制细胞因子循环水平的变化。15例实体恶性肿瘤患者纳入本研究，采用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）法分别在HIFU治疗前和治疗后1周测量血清血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）、转化生长因子-β1（TGF-β1）、转化生长因子-β2（TGF-β2）、白细胞介素6（IL-6）和白细胞介素10（IL-10）水平。其中，7例有远处转移，其余8例无转移。所有患者均接受了一次针对原发性癌症的HIFU治疗，包括8例无转移患者的完全消融和7例有转移患者的部分消融。结果显示，HIFU治疗后血清免疫抑制细胞因子水平降低，HIFU治疗前后VEGF、TGF-β1和TGF-β2有显著下降。与转移患者的值相比，HIFU治疗后非转移患者的血清免疫抑制细胞因子水平显著降低。结论是，HIFU除了直接破坏肿瘤外，还能降低肿瘤分泌的免疫抑制细胞因子的产生。这种变化可能会减轻肿瘤诱导的免疫抑制，并在HIFU治疗后恢复癌症患者的抗肿瘤免疫力。
