Effects of Nephrectomy and Interferon Administration on Immunological Parameters in Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma

Yoon, Joung Byung; Lee, Sang Don; Lee, Jung Zoo; Chung, Moon Kee

Abstract

To study the changes in the subsets of peripheral blood T-lymphocytes before and after nephrectomy(Nx) and interferon (IFN) therapy, twenty-four patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), who were received radical Nx in all, were divided into three groups; one group consisted of 5 patients with lung metastasis who had been administrated IFN-alpha(M1 group), another group consisted of 10 patients without metastasis who had been administrated IFN-alpha(MO group), and the other group consisted of 9 patients without metastasis who had not been administrated IFN-alpha(IFN(-) group). Immunological parameters such as the percentage of CD3, CD4,CD8 positive cells and the ratio of percentage of CD4/CD8 positive cells were examined by two color flow cytometry. The value of CD4 positive cells showed a significant increase after Nx and the administration of IFN-alpha(P<0.05). The value of CD3 and CD8 positive cells showed no particular changes in all groups. The ratio of percentage of CD4/CD8 positive cells showed a tendency to increased after Nx and administration of IFN-alpha. There was a correlation between the administration of IFN-a and the changes of percentage of CD4 positive cells. We suggest that the administration of IFN-a lead to the increase of helper T cells and immunotherapy such as IFN in RCC patients has some benefits on cellular immunity.