Polymorphonuclear neutrophil motility in selected surgical patients-mainly in patients with cancers

Abstract

Little attention has been focused on the function of polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) in cancer patients, whereas the cell has been shown to have a cytotoxic effect on neoplasms. In the present study, PMN chemotactic response and random migration were measured using an agarose method in 65 patients with cancers and in 24 patients with benign diseases. The chemoattractants used were zymosan-activated serum (ZAS), Escherichia coli culture supernatant (SEc), Staphylococcus aureus culture supernatant (SSt), and N-formyl methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP). Chemotactic responses in normal subjects were 89.7±8.4mm (M±SD, ×40) to ZAS, 70.5±4.1mm to SEc, 66.6±8.7mm to SSt, and 78.1±5.6mm to FMLP, and the random migration was 53±4.3mm. There was a statistically significant (p<0.01) loss of chemotaxis to SEc and SSt, and RM in 28 gastric cancer patients. Chemotaxis and RM in 17 patients with advanced gastric cancer in which the depth of cancer invasion was extended to the propria muscle layer or more deeply were all significantly lower than those in normal subjects (p<0.05). In the remaining of 11 patients with early gastric cancer, however, a significant increase in chemotaxis to SEc and FMLP, and a significant decrease in RM were observed. No significant change of chemotaxis was obtained from patients with cancers of the esophagus, colon, breast and lung; but RM was significantly decreased (p<0.05) breast and lung cancer patients. There was also a significant decrease (p<0.05) in chemotaxis to SEc in 4 patients with obstructive jaundice including 3 malignant neoplasm patients. Chemotactic responses to SEc and FMLP were significantly increased(p<0.05)in 7 patients with ulcerative colitis, though RM was normal. In two patients with severe bacterial infection, both chemotaxis and RM were decreased. The data from gastric cancer patients suggest that PMN chemotaxis in earlier stage diseases may be increased and beneficial to the host defense system against infection and neoplasma; but in the more advanced stage diseases the more defecttive PMN function may lead to its more impaired tumoricidal and bactericidal activity.