General anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia maintaining appropriate anesthesia depth may protect excessive production of inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones in colon cancer patients during and after surgery.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of varied anesthetic methods and depths on inflammatory cytokines and stress hormone levels in radical operation among colon cancer patients during perioperative period.A total of 120 patients were collected in the study and randomly divided into 4 groups, A: general anesthesia + Narcotrend D1, B: general anesthesia + Narcotrend D2, C: general anesthesia + epidural anesthesia + Narcotrend D1, D: general anesthesia + epidural anesthesia + Narcotrend D2. The levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, cortisol (Cor), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were measured adopting commercial kits before anesthesia (T0), 4 hours after surgery (T1), 24 hours after surgery (T2), and 72 hours after surgery (T3).There was no significant difference in basic clinical characteristics among the groups. In comparison with group A, B and C, group D showed significantly lower levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, Cor, ACTH, and ET-1 at T1 and T2 (all, P < .05). Significantly higher levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, Cor, and ACTH were detected at T1 and T2 than those at T0 (all, P < .05), whereas, at T3, the levels of inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones were all decreased near to preoperation ones.General anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia at Narcotrend D2 depth plays an important role in reducing immune and stress response in patients with colon cancer from surgery to 24 hours after surgery.