OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect and mechanism of Shenqi Fuzheng Injection (SFI) in repairing immune function of organism at cellular and molecular levels.

METHODSSeventy-seven patients with pathologically confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer were assigned to three groups, the 22 patients in group A received surgical operation only; the 26 in group B were treated with surgical operation and chemotherapy; and to the 29 in group C, both chemotherapy and SFI were given after surgical operation. Besides, a group D with 22 patients with benign tumor was set up for control. The protein expressions of CD83, CD80 and CD86 in all patients' tumor tissue and axillary lymph node were detected by flow cytometry before and after treatment.

RESULTSLevels of CD83, CD80 and CD86 in both tumor tissue and lymph node of cancer patients were significantly lower than those in the control (P < 0.05); and those in group B were significantly lower than in group A (P < 0.05, P < 0.01); but no significant difference was found in comparing the corresponding indices between group A and group C (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe immune function of tumor patients could be impaired by tumor and chemotherapy definitely, and SFI could give aid to the repairing of immunity by way of participating in the activation of dendritic cells and the up regulation of co-stimulus molecules.