Depressed Levels of Granular Lymphocytes with Natural Killer (NK) Cell Function in 247 Cancer Patients

Abstract

The HNK-1 (Leu-7) monoclonal antibody was used to enumerate and characterize the level of blood granular lymphocytes in 247 cancer patients. The results were compared to 146 control individuals. A fluorescence-activated cell sorter was used to purify blood HNK-1+ cells from cancer patients. The monoclonal antibody identified a homogeneous population of granular lymphocytes with greater than 95% purity. Conversely, virtually 100% of HNK-1- cells from cancer patients were agranular lymphocytes. These results were the same as previously observed in normal individuals, where the HNK-1+ cell fraction contained all the lymphocytes with spontaneous cytotoxicity in natural killer (NK) and killer (K) cell assays. The level of HNK-1+ cells in cancer patients correlated significantly with the patient's age and sex, with older individuals having higher levels and male patients containing a higher proportion than female patients. The levels in the cancer patients were significantly lower than normal controls (p = 0.04). When the results were subdivided by the histologic type of cancer, additional differences were noted. Compared to age and sex-matched controls, significantly depressed levels of HNK-1+ granular lymphocytes were observed in 49 patients with colon cancer (9.7% vs. 15.8%, p = 0.0001), 18 patients with lung carcinoma (11.7% vs. 27.0%, p = 0.0001), 24 patients with breast carcinoma (12.0% vs. 15.5%, p = 0.04) and 64 patients with head and neck carcinoma (15.9% vs. 19.1%, p = 0.05). However, there were no significant differences overall in the average HNK-1+ cell level of 66 patients with melanoma (13.0% vs. 13.5%, p = 0.75) and nine patients with sarcomas (15.8% vs. 14.3%, p = 0.71). Thus, this important subpopulation of granular lymphocytes with NK and K cell function was significantly depressed in most cancer patients. Accounting for the patient's age and sex and the histologic type of cancer was critical to interpreting the results.

Adverse effects of intraportal chemotherapy on natural killer cell activity in colorectal cancer patients

“…Accordingly, the incidence of Dukes' A stage was higher in the untreated than the treated group. It has been reported that the level of NK cells [13,14] and its cytotoxicity [14,15] do not have any relationship with the stages of colorectal cancer. The only time that NK cytotoxicity seems to correlate with stage is when patients have very advanced metastatic disease [15,16].…”

Dynamics of lymphocyte subsets in children living in an area polluted by polychlorinated biphenyls

“…In line with these findings is a report that PCB exposure may lead to an increased adaptive immune response, augmentation of allergic disease, or an onset of autoimmune reactions (Krzystyniak et al, 1995). Alterations in lymphocyte sub-population dynamics after PCB exposure may also be related to a potentially increased susceptibility of children to inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, allergy, immune deficiencies, and cancers; the clinical relevance of particular cell subset distributions has been widely described (Strelkauskas et al, 1976;McFarlane et al, 1977;Bullen and Losowsky, 1978;Matsumoto et al, 1980;Victorino and Hodgson, 1980;Balch et al, 1983;Crockard et al, 1990;Raes et al, 1997;Michalkova et al, 2000;Yssel and Groux, 2000).…”

Correlation between DNA Content, Expression of Ki-67 Antigen of Tumor Cells and Immunophenotype of Lymphocytes from Malignant Pleural Effusions

“…Moreover, immunosuppressive agents such as adenosine have been demonstrated in extracellular fluid of solid carcinomas [20]. Whether the suppression of NK cells depends on KIRs or other factors remains unknown, but several authors reported great numbers of significantly depressed NK cells in patients with colon, lung, breast or head and neck cancer [21,22]. They concluded that, in general, the levels of NK cells varied among patients with different histological types of cancer.…”