Lymphopenia and deranged lymphocyte subsets in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The peripheral blood lymphocyte counts of 333 patients with a nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 125 control subjects were compared. The mean pretreatment lymphocyte count in the patients was significantly lower than that of the normal controls (P less than 0.0001). Subgroup analysis of absolute lymphocyte counts in different stages of the disease revealed a stage dependent lymphopenia which became significant when the disease was stage III or over (P less than 0.001). Characterization of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in 81 patients and 46 normal control subjects revealed a significant reduction of the absolute Pan T (T11) lymphocytes in the patients (P less than 0.0001). Both the absolute numbers of T helper (T4) and suppressor cells (T8) were reduced in the patients (P less than 0.0001 and less than 0.026, respectively). While the percentage of T4 was reduced (P less than 0.0001), the percentage of T8 was elevated (P less than 0.02), resulting in a reduced T4/T8 ratio (P less than 0.0001). The mean absolute and percentage counts of T11, T8 and B did not correlate with different stages of the disease.