Immunoregulation in pancreatic cancer patients

Metastatic pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancer known in man yet specific antitumor immunity has been demonstrated in lymph nodes draining the sites of pancreatic tumors. Despite this immunity, pancreatic cancer patients suffer a quick demise. To further define tumor immunity in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, we sought to characterize helper T cell subsets, serum cytokines, cellular cytotoxicity that is both T-cell and non-T cell mediated, as well as known tumor-derived immunosuppressive products that may be present in their peripheral blood. Significantly heightened levels of interleukin 2 (IL-2), a Th1 cytokine, were found in patients before treatment with chemotherapy while serum IL-10, a Th2 cytokine, were at significantly lower levels than observed in normal donors tested between their fifth and seventh decades of life. IL-10 levels increased progressively with age as a serum-bound protein in normal, healthy donors tested between the ages of 24 through 61. An age associated progression of increased IL-10 levels was not observed in pancreatic cancer patients. Few patients had detectable serum levels of soluble fas ligand but approximately half had elevated levels of a tumor marker, detected with the CA-15.3 assay, known as soluble MUCIN 1 (MUC1). Cell mediated cytotoxicity including T-cell mediated killing of pancreatic tumor cell lines was detected in many patients. These data suggest that pancreatic cancer patients have activated type 1 helper T cells that can support development of cell-mediated immunity, and that their sera contain lowered levels of the "anti-inflammatory" type 2 cytokine, IL-10.