Circulating immature and mature dendritic cells in relation to lymphocyte subsets in patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer

Cancer-related deficiency in circulating dendritic cells (DC), whose import ant anticancer role is well established, has been proven to be associated w ith lymphocytopenia. This study was performed to evaluate which lymphocyte subset is most marketly related to the failure of the DC system. The study included 30 patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer, 10 of whom had dis tant organ metastases. Immature and mature DCs were measured by FACS and mo noclonal antibodies against CD123 and CD11c antigens, respectively. Low lev els of immature and mature DCs were observed in 63% and 43% of patients, re spectively. Patients with low levels of circulating mature DCs had signific antly lower values of T lymphocytes, T helper lymphocytes and NK cells than those with normal mature DC levels. In contrast, no significant difference was seen between patients with normal or abnormally low values of immature DCs. Conversely, patients with a decreased number of T lymphocytes, T help er lymphocytes and NK cells showed significantly lower values of circulatin g mature DCs than those with lymphocyte subsets within the normal range, wh ereas no difference was seen in immature DC amounts. This study suggests th at only mature DC deficiency may be associated with important lymphocyte su bset alterations in cancer patients, whereas deficiency in immature DCs doe s not seem to be related to other immune cell disorders.