[The study of infiltrating lymphocytes in the tissues of bladder carcinoma]

Using 121 patients with bladder cancer operated on at our institutes, the relationship between lymphocyte infiltration and grading, staging or patients' prognosis was studied for evaluating regional immunocompetence in bladder cancer. There was no correlation between number of infiltrating lymphocytes and tumor grading or staging. However, the patients with high grade or advanced stage showed high recurrence rate and mortality. The same tendency was observed in patients whose tumor had few infiltrating lymphocytes. A lymphocyte subset was detected in both peripheral blood and tumor extracts in 15 cases of bladder cancer. Compared with the normal controls, T cell percent was lower and T gamma cell ratio was higher in peripheral blood of bladder cancer patients. T cell percent was almost equal in peripheral blood and in cancer tissue, but the T gamma cell ratio in the cancer patients was much higher than that in blood. In the tumor tissues, high T cell and lower T gamma cell percentages were observed at basal areas than those at superficial portions. These results suggest that infiltrating lymphocytes may take part in the host response to the tumor in bladder cancer. Classification of these lymphocytes based upon function will be necessary for further study.