Assessment of phenotype of blood lymphocyte subsets prior and after PWM stimulation in patients with lung carcinoma.

Surface phenotypes of peripheral blood lymphocytes of lung cancer patients and those of two control groups were assessed by means of indirect immunofluorescence with monoclonal antibodies, prior and after 10 day pokeweed mitogen (PWM) in vitro stimulation. There was no significant alteration in pan T cell per cent values prior and after mitogen stimulation in all groups tested. CD4+ cells in lung cancer group were however significantly decreased as compared to blood donor group (37.3% vs 44.9%, p less than 0.05). This decline was even more pronounced in III/IVo stage of tumour progression according to TNM classification (36.8%, p less than 0.05). These changes, however were not cancer specific, because similar decrease of CD4+ cells was seen in a group of patients with nonneoplastic lung conditions (35.7%, p less than 0.01). Following 10 day PWM culture per cent values of CD4+ cells did not change significantly. The assessment of CD8+ lymphocytes has shown marked differences in two subgroups of lung cancer, namely in II (17.4%) and III/IV (26.2%) of tumour progression (p less than 0.05), which returned to normal values following PWM culture. CD4/CD8 ratio was distinctly depressed in cancer patients in relation to donors. The evaluation of surface markers of B lymphocytes activated cells and monocytes did not show significant alterations in all groups examined. Per cent of HNK1+ cells was heightened in cancer group, especially in III/IV stage of tumour progression in relation to donors (21.7% and 22.8% vs 17.3%, p less than 0.05 respectively). PWM stimulation resulted in marked fall of HNK1+ cells to values corresponding to those in donor group. This study indicates some alterations in per cent values of blood lymphocytes subpopulations belonging mainly to T cell lineage in lung cancer patients linked to tumour staging which only partially return to normal following PWM stimulation.