乳腺癌患者手术前后的血浆细胞因子水平

Studying the levels of cytokines in the plasma of patients could be valuable in guiding immunotherapy policies.

We assessed the plasma levels of 4 major cytokines [interferon (IFN)- , interleukin-2 (IL-2), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- ), transforming growth factor beta (TGF- )] collected from 19 patients with ductal breast cancer (BCa), before surgery (BS) and 5 days after surgery (AS). The ratio AS/BS was also calculated and correlated with histopathological variables and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) density. The IFN- and TNF- levels were significantly higher in BCa patients, BS and AS, than healthy controls ( P < 0. 02). High IL-2 levels BS were linked with node involvement ( P = 0. 02), and marginally with HER2 expression ( P = 0.

08), while high TNF- levels were linked with high PgR expression ( P = 0. 02). Increasing IFN- , IL-2, and TNF- levels were noted AS, which was more evident in patients with larger tumors. The TGF- levels were significantly lower in BCa patients ( P < 0. 007).

Linear regression analysis showed a direct association of IFN- levels AS ( P = 0. 02, r = 0. 52) and of TNF- AS/BS-ratio ( P = 0. 001, r = 0. 72) with TIL-density. It is suggested that although effector immune response is evident in the majority of early stage BCa patients, removal of the primary tumor further unblocks such responses.