Preactivated T cells in cancer patients with poor prognosis

We investigated the outcome of disease in correlation with pretherapeutic urinary neopterin levels in 161 patients suffering from cervical carcinoma and 51 patients suffering from ovarian cancer. Neopterin is produced by human macrophages upon stimulation with interferon gamma and is therefore a measure for activated T cells. In both types of cancer, neopterin levels before therapy were of predictive significance. Patients with pretherapeutically high neopterin levels were more likely to die earlier. Even 12-18 months after the start of therapy this effect was significant. The data indicate that primary events in the immune surveillance are intact in those patients but effector mechanisms might be diminished. Persistent activation of cell-mediated immunity appears to be unfavorable in cancer patients.