Advanced Lung Cancer Is Associated with Decreased Expression of Perforin, CD95, CD38 by Circulating CD3+CD8+ T Lymphocytes

Abstract It is known that dysregulation of the immune system is closely related to the development of lung cancer and that CD8+T lymphocytes play a critical role in antitumor immunity. We analyzed the percentage of CD3+CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood, and expressions of the activated molecules, perforin, CD95, CD28, HLA-DR and CD38 in circulating CD3+CD8+ T cells from 68 lung cancer cases with stage I∼II and 61 lung cancer cases with stage III∼IV by flow cytometry. 61 lung cancer cases with stage III∼IV were followed up for more than 6 months and survival time was recorded. The percentages of perforin+ cells, CD95+ cells and CD38+ cells in fresh CD3+CD8+ T lymphocytes of stage III∼IV group were lower than those of stage I∼II group (p=0.021; p=0.043; p=0.036). And an increased percentage of CD3+CD8+perforin+ cells was shown to have a positive effect on the survival time in stage III∼IV lung cancer patients (p=0.043). Advanced lung cancer patients have characteristics of impairment in the cytotoxicity of circulating CD3+CD8+ T lymphocytes and perforin expression in circulating CD3+CD8+ T cells might be used as a prognostic biomarker for the advanced lung cancer.