Rare subgroup of T Lymphocytes in Oral and Maxillofacial Cancer Patients

Abstract

Abstract Malignant tumors of head and neck region represent a heterogenous group of pathologies. Immune phenotype of each tumor might represent valuable information for a putative personalized treatment in the future. We decided to revisit very interesting previous data from a study we conducted in 2003 where we encountered a rare population of CD4+CD8+ double-positive T cells in lymph nodes surgically removed in patients with head and neck malignancies. The study included 27 patients (22 males and 5 females) who underwent surgical procedures that associated lymphadenectomy during March-July 2003 in the Maxillo-Facial Surgery Clinic of „Dan Theodorescu” University Dental Hospital in Bucharest. We encountered a high percentage of CD4+CD8+ T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and poorly differentiated carcinoma, as well as in lymph nodes of both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. We would like to emphasize the importance of immune phenotyping, when possible, to discriminate between tumor subtypes, evidence that establishing a true identity of the cells involved might be useful for future studies and/or personalized therapeutic strategies.