Lissoni P, Barni S, Tancini G, Crispino S, Paolorossi F, Cattaneo G, Lucini V, Mariani M, Esposti D, Esposti G
Division of Radiation Oncology, San Gerardo Hospital, Milan, Italy.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1988;521:290-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1988.tb35286.x.
It has been demonstrated that melatonin and other pineal hormones play a role in the neuroendocrine control of immunity. Anomalies of both pineal and immune functions have been reported in cancer. Pineal and lymphocyte functions, however, have never been simultaneously evaluated in oncologic patients. This preliminary study was carried out in order to analyze the melatonin-lymphocyte relationship in human neoplasms. In a first investigation, we evaluated melatonin serum levels and lymphocyte subpopulations on venous blood samples collected during the morning from 46 healthy controls and from 27 cancer patients, 13 of whom had metastases, while the other 14 were without metastases. Moreover, melatonin levels were high in 10 oncological patients and within the normal range in the other 17 cases. B lymphocyte (B), total T lymphocyte (T3), T helper/inducer (T4) and T suppressor/cytotoxic (T8) mean percentages and T4/T8 mean ratios did not significantly differ, either between patients with high and normal melatonin levels, or between metastatic and nonmetastatic cancer patients. In a second study, we evaluated the effects of a prolonged treatment with melatonin (20 mg/daily intramuscularly at 3:00 p.m. for 2 months) on 8 patients with advanced cancer, in whom conventional antitumor therapies had failed. Mean percentages of B, T3, T4, T8 lymphocytes and T4/T8 mean ratios were not significantly different before or after melatonin treatment. In only one patient did the T4/T8 ratio decrease after therapy; in this case only, a stabilization of the disease was obtained, while in all 7 other patients the neoplastic disease progressed also during melatonin treatment, even if an evident improvement of the performance status was seen as it was in most cases. These results seem to exclude that melatonin may influence lymphocyte functions in cancer. Longitudinal studies and further data, however, will be needed to clarify this question.
已经证明褪黑素和其他松果体激素在免疫的神经内分泌控制中发挥作用。癌症患者中已报告松果体和免疫功能均存在异常。然而，肿瘤患者的松果体和淋巴细胞功能从未同时进行过评估。进行这项初步研究是为了分析人类肿瘤中褪黑素与淋巴细胞的关系。在第一项研究中，我们评估了从46名健康对照者和27名癌症患者早晨采集的静脉血样本中的褪黑素血清水平和淋巴细胞亚群，其中13名癌症患者有转移，另外14名无转移。此外，10名肿瘤患者的褪黑素水平较高，另外17例在正常范围内。B淋巴细胞（B）、总T淋巴细胞（T3）、T辅助/诱导细胞（T4）和T抑制/细胞毒性细胞（T8）的平均百分比以及T4/T8平均比值，在褪黑素水平高和正常的患者之间，以及有转移和无转移的癌症患者之间，均无显著差异。在第二项研究中，我们评估了褪黑素长期治疗（每天下午3点肌肉注射20毫克，持续2个月）对8例晚期癌症患者的影响，这些患者的传统抗肿瘤治疗均已失败。褪黑素治疗前后B、T3、T4、T8淋巴细胞的平均百分比以及T4/T8平均比值均无显著差异。只有一名患者治疗后T4/T8比值下降；仅在该病例中病情得到稳定，而其他7名患者在褪黑素治疗期间肿瘤疾病仍进展，即使在大多数情况下患者的体能状态有明显改善。这些结果似乎排除了褪黑素可能影响癌症患者淋巴细胞功能的可能性。然而，需要进行纵向研究和更多数据来阐明这个问题。
