Lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with cervical cancer

The evaluation of the immunological aspects in cervical cancer has been a point of major interest in the past few years. Data found in literature are, however, often confusing. In order to identify changes in cell mediated immunoresponse in these malignancies, we have studied the lymphocyte subpopulations from peripheral blood samples in women with FIGO intraepithelial + IB stages vs a control group. The analysis of our results show evidence of an increase in the number of natural killer cells even in intraepithelial tumors. The activation of the immunological system from the very early stage is probably in response to viral antigens in the neoplastic cells and/or soluble factors produced by the tumor.