Relationship between immune and inflammatory markers and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with gastrointestinal cancers
Objective To analyze the changes in immune and inflammatory markers during the peri-operative period of gastrointestinal cancer patients and further evaluate the relationship between preoperative immune and inflammatory markers and patients'clinicopathological characteristics.Methods 15 gastroin-testinal cancer patients enrolled from June 2022 to September 2023 who underwent surgery in Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology were collected,including 2 cases of gastric cancer and 13 cases of colorectal cancer.Analysis of peripheral blood immune and inflammatory markers was conducted one day before surgery and on the 3rd day post-surgery,including total B lymphocytes,Natural Killer(NK)cells,total T lymphocytes and various T cell subtypes,inflammatory markers such as interleukin(IL)-2,4,6 and tumor necrosis factors(TNF).Non-parametric paired t-tests were used to analyze the statistical sig-nificance of changes in immune and inflammatory markers before and after surgery.One-way ANOVA was employed for comparisons among multiple groups.Results After surgery,Post-operatively,the counts of Th+Ts cells[(613.85±224.98)cells/μl],total T lymphocytes[(639.44±222.85)cells/μl],sup-pressive/cytotoxic T lymphocytes[(230.70±109.73)cells/μl],NK cells[(96.03±73.90)cells/μl],and the combined count of T lymphocytes+B lymphocytes+NK cells[(815.54±300.08)cells/μl]were all lower than pre-operative levels(783.67±222.26),(822.27±217.10),(322.21±153.46),(171.06±100.73),and[(1 103.67±310.95)cells/μl]respectively(t=3.04,3.24,3.05,3.95,4.06,P<0.01).Further analysis revealed significant correlations between tumor differentiation grades(low,moderate,high)and pre-operative counts of NK cells[(97.38±32.08),(223.60±96.85),66.68 cells/μl],expression of second signal receptor Th lymphocytes[(96.84±2.25),(91.78±8.77),67.96 cells/μl],and activation of Ts cells[(62.67±10.69),(59.90±11.68),21.26 cells/μl,F=4.77,6.56,5.78,P<0.05].Tumor staging(T1,T2,T3,T4)was significantly correlated with pre-op-erative total B lymphocytes[9.48%,(5.56±1.73)%,(8.37±3.65)%,(17.15±4.17)%],NK cells[8.07%,(22.14±7.30)%,(16.53±5.60)%,(7.16±1.84)%],expression of second signal recep-tor Th lymphocytes[67.96,(90.01±12.97),(94.05±6.79),(95.95±1.15)cells/μl],and activa-tion of Ts cells[21.26,(60.66±8.73),(63.92±11.74),(53.06±9.92)cells/μl,F=6.36,4.45,3.71,4.81,P<0.01].In cases of post-operative lymph node metastasis,pre-operative levels of IL-2[(2.10±0.65)pg/ml],IL-4[(2.01±0.84)pg/ml],and IL-10[(3.02±1.26)pg/ml]were lower com-pared to levels without lymph node metastasis[(2.82±0.38),(2.76±0.45),(4.24±0.63)pg/ml]re-spectively(t=2.63,2.21,2.32,P<0.05).In cases of ENTD,pre-operative tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-γ levels[(3.12±0.35)pg/ml]were higher compared to cases without ENTD[(2.04±0.49)pg/ml,t=2.93,P<0.05].In cases of neural invasion,pre-operative IL-2[(2.14±0.70)pg/ml]and IL-4[(2.01±0.88)pg/ml]were lower compared to cases without neural invasion[(2.79±0.37),(2.76±0.37)pg/ml]respectively(t=2.28,2.18,P<0.05).Conclusion This small-sample study explored the changes in immune and inflammatory markers during the perioperative peri-od of gastrointestinal cancer patients and their relationship with clinicopathological characteristics.
Gastric and colorectal cancerImmuneInflammatory markersClinical patho-logical characteristics