Disease stage related in vitro responsiveness of peripheral blood T-lymphocytes in patients with head and neck carcinoma

The in vitro responsiveness of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) T lymphocytes was studied in 81 patients with limited or extended head and ne ck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), as judged by T, N and T + N stages. Pat ients included in the study were males below 80 years of age, without auto- immune disease or cachexia, who were not taking any immune-active medicatio n at the time of diagnosis. The patients were divided into groups according to TNM stage T0-2 vs T3-4, N0-1 vs N2-3 or T + N0-3 vs T + N4-7. When cell s from patients with early and late stage, according to T, N or T + N stage , were compared, we found a decreased level of mitogen stimulated T-cells a nd decreased spontaneous proliferation with increasing disease stage. The s ame was true if the in vitro mitogenesis of T-cells was analysed separately , depending on the laryngeal or oral cavity/pharyngeal origin of the patien ts' tumours. If the patients were divided into two groups based on N stage, decreased gamma-interferon, and to some extent interleukin (IL-2), but not IL-4 levels, were found to be related to the disease stage.