[Preliminary study on lymphocyte subsets of sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer patients]

Abstract

Objective: To study the lymphocyte subsets of sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) in breast cancer patients.

Methods: Flow cytometry was used to analyze the markers on the surface of lymphocytes such as CD3, CD4, CD8, CD16 and CD19 in the sentinel lymph node of breast cancer.

Results: When lymph node metastasis did not occur, there was no significant difference in the number of CD3(+) T, CD4(+) T, CD8(+) T, CD16 NK and CD19 B cells between SLN cells and non-SLN cells. With lymph node metastasis, the proportion of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells was significantly changed, CD8(+) T cells (66.15 +/- 5.97) were the predominant cells instead of CD4(+) T cells (69.07 +/- 5.02), whereas no significant difference in CD3(+) T, CD16 NK and CD19 B cells.

Conclusion: The CD4(+) to CD8(+) T cell ratio in sentinel lymph nodes with metastasis is reversed in breast cancer patients. This might results from changes in microenvironment due to tumor cell invasion.