Gastric cancer patients have elevated plasmacytoid and CD1c+ dendritic cells in the peripheral blood.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are important in tumor immunology. Identifying DC subset markers in the peripheral blood, which are informative for gastric cancer stages, is not only useful for prognosis but may also provide mechanistic insights into processes facilitating therapy. The present study investigated plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and myeloid CD1c+ dendritic cells (mDC1s) in the peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer and healthy controls using flow cytometry. Using peripheral DC staining and subset analysis, patients with gastric cancer were identified to have substantially higher numbers of peripheral pDCs and mDC1s. In addition, there was a trend of elevated circulating pDCs with advanced stages and lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer, whereas no differences in circulating mDC1s were observed among the various groups. The results suggested that circulating pDCs are a positive prognostic indicator in patients with gastric cancer of different stages and highlighted the critical role of pDCs immunity in the development of gastric cancer.