Phagocytic activity of circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes from patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix

Peripheral blood leukocytes and the sera from 10 healthy women and 12 patients with invasive carcinoma of the cervix (stages I to IV), showed no differences in their capacity to inhibit the replication of an invasive strain of Escherichia coli. The serum from only one patient was unable to arrest the bacterial growth. The quantitation of myeloperoxidase in the polymorphonuclear leukocytes from 21 patients (stages I to III) and 11 healthy women showed, however, a lower activity in the group of patients (P = 0.001). Most patients also showed lymphocytopenia, neutrophilia, and eosinophilia but normal counts of total leukocytes.