The analysis of the level of Treg lymphocytes in the blood of patients with endometrial cancer before and after the surgery — preliminary study

Introduction. The progression of cancer is a complex process involving host-tumour interactions taking place in cancer and in the cancer microenvironment. The tumour remodels the microenvironment into the suppressive profile by various mechanisms. One of the most important elements of this mechanism is the inducing of the infiltration of Treg lymphocytes into cancer and its microenvironment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the alterations of the Treg cell population in the peripheral blood of patients before and after the surgical treatment for endometrial cancer. Material and methods. For the present study 24 patients with endometrial cancer were recruited. All the patients were treated surgically. The peripheral blood samples were collected from the endometrial cancer patients before operation and three days after the surgical procedure and evaluated using flow cytometry method. Results. CD25+ CD4+ FOXP3+ T cells were found in all the examined peripheral blood samples derived from the endometrial cancer patients in the days before and following applied surgery. We observed differences before and after the applied surgical procedure in patients treated for uterine cancer. The highest number of Treg cells in the peripheral blood was demonstrated before the surgical procedure; it diminished statistically significantly following the surgery. Conclusions. The decrease of the percentage of Treg cells in blood sera in patients following radical surgical treatment might be useful in measuring the radicalism of the treatment. The monitoring of the level of selective immune system suppression related to Treg cell blood serum levels during cancer therapy might support a decision to supplement the standard therapy with immunotherapy or to increase the degree of radicalism of the applied therapy.

The long-term outcomes in perimenopausal patients treated for cervical cancer

Introduction. In the coming decades, the population of adults 65 years of age and older will increase significantly. Younger patients between 30 and 40 years of age, who are diagnosed with cervical cancer, have a better prognosis than the older group. The second peak of incidence, involving patients between 60 and 70 years of age, correlates with a poorer prognosis. Material and methods. In our study, we included 360 patients between 40 and 60 years old operated on due to cervical cancer followed by radiochemotherapy. We divided these patients into two groups according to age. The first group was composed of premenopausal patients (aged between 40 and 50 years) and the second of postmenopausal patients (aged between 50 and 60 years), and long-term outcomes (overall survival rates OS) were analysed in both groups of patients. Results. We observed statistically significant differences in the long-term outcomes between the subgroups of patients treated surgically for cervical cancer, and it was better in the premenopausal group of patients. No statistically significant relationship between these two groups of patients as far as clinical features was observed. Conclusion. We found that postmenopausal patients may actually benefit more from having radical surgery. Proving this supports the case for distinguishing geriatric oncology from gynaecological oncology.

RCAS1 and B7H4 antigens immunoreactivity in squamous cell carcinoma of palatine tonsils and cancer microenvironment

B7-H4 protein has been demonstrated to be over-expressed by various types of cancer cells. The levelof expression of B7-H4 in these cancers is related to the type of cancer, its stage, and the number ofTreg cells, and correlates with patient survival and might be a new therapeutic target. The major role ofRCAS1 expression is to inhibit activated immune cells, such as T and B lymphocytes and NK cells, andto induce their apoptosis. It has also been postulated that RCAS1 is involved in the remodelling of thetumour microenvironment. The aim of the present study has been to evaluate RCAS1- and B7-H4-antigen immunoreactivity in squamouscell carcinoma of the palatine tonsils and in the cancer microenvironment. For our study, we recruited30 patients with primary squamous cell carcinoma originating from the palatine tonsils