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Enrichment of memory T cells and other profound immunological changes in the bone marrow from untreated breast cancer patients.
- Source :
-
International journal of cancer [Int J Cancer] 2001 Apr 01; Vol. 92 (1), pp. 96-105. - Publication Year :
- 2001
-
Abstract
- Previous studies with animal tumors showed that bone marrow (BM) is a privileged site where potentially lethal tumor cells are controlled in a dormant state by the immune system. Here, we investigated BM of breast cancer patients with respect to tumor cell content, immune activation status and memory T-cell content. BM-derived cells from primary operated breast cancer patients (n = 90) were compared with those from healthy donors (n = 10) and also with cells from respective blood samples. Cytokeratin 19-positive tumor cells were detected by nested polymerase chain reaction. Three-color flow cytometry was used to identify numbers and activation state of T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes/macrophages and subsets by a panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The proportion of memory T cells among the CD4 and CD8 T cells was much higher in BM of cancer patients than in healthy donors (p < 0.001). The extent of memory T-cell increase was related to the size of the primary tumor. Patient-derived BM memory CD8 T cells could be shown to contain specific HLA-A2/Her-2/neu(369-377) tetramer binding cells. Patients with disseminated tumor cells in their BM had more memory CD4 T cells and more CD56(+) CD8(+) cells than patients with tumor cell-negative BM. Only some of the immunological changes seen in BM samples of cancer patients were also detectable in peripheral blood samples. Our hypothesis that BM is a special compartment for immunological memory and tumor dormancy is supported by the above findings. The overall results reveal that BM is a valuable additional compartment for immune diagnosis in pathological conditions and possibly for follow-up treatment strategies.<br /> (Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)
- Subjects :
- Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Bone Marrow pathology
Breast Neoplasms pathology
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes immunology
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes pathology
CD56 Antigen analysis
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes immunology
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes pathology
Cell Count
Female
Flow Cytometry
HLA-A2 Antigen analysis
Humans
Keratins analysis
Killer Cells, Natural immunology
Killer Cells, Natural pathology
Lymphocyte Count
Macrophages immunology
Macrophages pathology
Middle Aged
Monocytes immunology
Monocytes pathology
Neoplasm Staging
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Receptor, ErbB-2 analysis
T-Lymphocytes pathology
Tumor Cells, Cultured
Bone Marrow immunology
Breast Neoplasms immunology
Immunologic Memory
T-Lymphocytes immunology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0020-7136
- Volume :
- 92
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- International journal of cancer
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 11279612