Imbalance of T cell subsets in cancer patients and its modification with bestatin, a small molecular immunomodifier.

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Abstract
The peripheral T lymphocyte subsets and natural killer (NK) cells of patients with cancer were studied by monoclonal antibody assays in comparison with those of non-cancer individuals. An imbalance of immunoregulatory T cell subsets was frequently found in the group of cancer patients (n=26), being characterized by a relatively high proportion of OKT8+ cells (45.0 .+-. 12.0%, p < 0.01) and a low OKT4+/OKT8+ ratio (1.29 .+-. 0.56, p < 0.05). T cell level showed no significant difference as assessed by either OKT3 or rosette formation with sheep erythrocytes (E). The effect of bestatin was examined in 10 of these cancer patients. The relative proportion of T cell subsets tended to normalize 2 to 6 weeks after starting the daily doses of 30 mg per body. The mean percentage of OKT8+ cells decreased from 47.2 to 33.4 (p < 0.01), while the helper to suppressor ratio increased from 1.18 to 1.79 (p < 0.01). A significant increase was also found in the percentage and number of OKT4+ cells and HNK-1+ cells after the drug administration, while T cell level tended to converge to a normal range.