1993 Volume 38 Issue 4 Pages 557-566
The population of lymphocyte subsets in 51 regional non-metastatic lymph-node lymphocytes from 31 gastric cancer patients was analyzed using the two-color flow cytometry technique under practical grouping of the regional lymph-nodes. In cases of gastric cancer without lymph-node metastasis, the population of helper T-cells and activated T-cells in the proximal lymph-nodes was increased, but not in the distal lymph-nodes. The same population was also increased in the non-metastatic distal lymph-nodes from the cases with proximal lymph-nodes metastasis. By contrast, the population of helper T-cells, but not activated T-cells was increased in the non-metastatic right cardial lymph-nodes from the cases with cancer lesion at the lower third of the stomach, and in the non-metastatic suprapyloric or infrapyloric lymph-nodes from the cases with cancer lesion at the upper third of the stomach. These findings suggest that antitumor activity may increase in proximal lymph-nodes in patients without cancer metastasis and in non-metastatic distal lymph-nodes in patients with proximal lymph-node metastasis.
