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.