Effect of cancer chemotherapeutic agents on the chemiluminescence of human granulocytes.

21 unilateral breast cancer patients taking different combinations of chemotherapeutic agents (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, 6-fluorouracil, vincristine, and prednisone) were studied to determine how chemotherapy affected their granulocytes. It is widely believed that in cancer patients chemotherapeutic agents increase susceptibility to infection. Therefore, luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence was used to evaluate leukocyte function since the chemiluminescence response has been correlated to bacterial killing. the chemiluminescence response in cancer patients (6-week treatment) was significantly reduced (approximately 50%; p less than 0.01) compared to nontreated volunteers. Preliminary studies using 3H-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenyl alanine binding showed similar decreases. We postulate that chemotherapy for 6 weeks may affect granulocyte precursor cells in bone marrow, thereby weakening peripheral granulocytes and reducing both their bactericidal capacity and 3H-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenyl alanine receptors.