Monitoring immunocompetent cells in the peripheral blood of stomach cancer patients after splenectomy and gastrectomy.

The status of lymphocyte subpopulations in splenectomized (Sx) stomach cancer patients (SCa-patients), assessed by monoclonal antibodies, has not been evaluated so far. Therefore subsets of peripheral white blood cells were monitored prior to and following surgical treatment in gastrectomized (Gx) and Sx (n = 64) as well as in non-Sx patients (n = 39). Postoperative surgical complications were more frequent in the Sx group. However, the 2-year survival rate of this group was higher than in non-Sx patients. Lymphocytes were significantly decreased in both groups of patients during the early postoperative period. Monocytes and polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) increased correspondingly. A significant loss of lymphocytes and their subsets in Sx patients was observed during the 1st-3rd postoperative days as compared to the Gx only patients. The OKT4/OKT8 ratios did not differ in either group of patients, whereas the OKT3+anti-B-Ly2 ratio was significantly increased in Sx patients 1 to 3 days postoperatively.