Lymphocyte counts of patients who have had skin cancer

Investigations of lymphocyte counts in patients with skin cancer have given conflicting results, possibly because homogeneous groups of patients were not studied.

Our purpose was to measure lymphocyte counts in patients with skin cancer to determine whether any abnormalities were associated with the number of cancers removed and to determine whether a lymphocyte count could identify patients at risk of the development of large numbers of cancers.

Apparently otherwise normal patients who had histologically confirmed skin cancers removed were studied. One group consisted of patients who had one skin cancer removed but had not had another within a minimum of 5 years. The other group consisted of patients who had had three or more skin cancers. Standard flow cytometry was used to determine the total lymphocyte count, CD4 (helper cell) count, and CD8 (cytotoxic cell) count.

Ninety-six patients with multiple skin cancers, and 24 with one skin cancer were studied. Only basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) were removed from 84 patients and the results from this homogeneous group were as follows: women had a higher CD4 cell count than men (p < 0.05); patients with 20 or more BCCs had a lower lymphocyte count (p < 0.01); and patients with one BCC had a higher CD4/CD8 ratio than those who had multiple BCCs (p < 0.05).

Differences were found between men and women, as well as between subgroups of patients with skin cancer. However, the range of lymphocyte counts was large and it was not possible to determine a threshold below which patients had a worse prognosis. A lymphocyte count is not a reliable way of predicting which patients will have a large number of skin cancers.