6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A158
COMPARISON OF THE IMMUNOLOGICAL STATUS IN THE LUNG PERIPHERAL AIRWAYS OF SMOKERS AND NONSMOKERS WITH PRIMARY LUNG CANCER
Kawiak J, Hoser G, Domagala-Kulawik J, Droszcz P, Droszcz W

Department of Clinical Cytology Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education and Department of Pulmonology, School of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland

Tobacco smokers are at a higher risk for lung cancer than nonsmokers. One of the reasons of the risk are changes in the lung immunological status. Evaluation of lymphocyte subsets according to the smoking history of patients may be important in cancer prevention and therapy. BALF cells from smokers and nonsmokers with primary lung cancer, as well as healthy smokers and nonsmokers, respectively, were compared. Two-color flow cytometry was applied, following immunocytochemical reactions with monoclonal antibodies. An increase in the total number of cells in BALF of smoking persons and increased proportion of macrophages was observed. The percentage of CD8+ lymphocytes was 1.7 times higher, whereas the proportions of CD4+ cells and a CD4/CD8 ratio were lower 1.5 and 2.6 times, respectively, in the BALF of cigarette smoking healthy persons when compared with nonsmoking volunteers. The changes did not depend on the age of the person. Significant differences in lymphocyte subsets in peripheral airways were found between lung cancer smoking and nonsmoking patients. The ratio of CD8+ to CD3+ cells in BALF of smokers with lung cancer was higher than those in BALF of nonsmoking lung cancer patients. In conclusion, the BALF lymphocyte subsets of smoking cancer patients should be compared with the results of healthy smokers, while nonsmoking lung cancer patient's BALFs with that of nonsmoking persons.