BACKGROUNDIt has been known that there are declines of dendritic cell (DC) count and its function in the peripheral blood of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which are remarkably related to the proceeding and prognosis of NSCIC. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship and clinical significance between the DC subsets (CD11c+DC and CD123+DC) and immunology state of patients with advanced NSCLC.

METHODSFlow cytometry was used to detect DC subsets, T cell subsets, NK cell percentage in the peripheral blood of 40 patients with advanced NSCLC and 10 healthy controls.

RESULTSThe expression of CD11c+DC (0.38%±0.18%) in the peripheral blood of advanced NSCLC patients, was decreased significantly compared with that of normal controls (0.66%±0.24%) (P < 0.01). The expression of CD123+DC in the peripheral blood of advanced NSCLC patients was (0.28±0.17)%, with no significant difference compared with that of normal controls (0.27%±0.11%) (P > 0.05). The percentage of CD3+ T cell and CD4+/CD8+ of patients with advanced NSCLC were significantly lower than those of normal controls (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05), and the percentage of CD8+ and NK cell of patients were higher than those of normal controls (P < 0.05). The correlation analysis showed that CD123+DC percentage was positively correlated to CD3+T cell percentage (P < 0.05) and negatively correlated to NK cell percentage (P < 0.01). The expression of DC subsets correlated with KPS and chemotherapy history of patients (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSThe advanced NSCLC may induce significant decreasing expression of CD11c+DC and may induce significant decrease of immunology state. There are close relationship among the expression of DC subsets and the immunology state of patients as well as the clinical biological behaviors of patients with advanced NSCLC.