Abstract: To investigate the cytoimmunologic status of patients with breast cancer and its relationship with prognostic risk factors. Methods： One hundred and ten patients with breast cancer in Shandong Provincial Hospital between 1997 and 2002 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical features, as well as the alternation of CD⁺₃T, CD⁺₄T, CD⁺₈T, CD⁺₄/CD⁺₈ and LTR and their relationship with mass size, metastasis of lymph nodes and CEA were also analyzed. Results： ①There were statistical differences in the percentage of CD⁺₄T and CD⁺₈T and the ratio of CD⁺₄/CD⁺₈ between groups of different mass sizes (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01). The percentage of CD⁺₄T was decreased and of CD+8T was increased when mass size was small. The ratio of CD⁺₄/CD⁺₈ went down with an increase of mass size. ②Percentages of CD⁺₃T and CD⁺₈T in patients with metastasis of axillary lymph nodes［LN(+)］ were significant higher than those without metastasis of axillary lymph nodes ［LN(-)］ (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01). ratioin patients with metastasis of LN(+) than those without metastasis of LN(-) (P＜0.05 or P＜0.01). The percentage of CD⁺₄T was higher in patients with metastasis of LN(+)than in patients without metastasis of LN(-), but no significant difference was found(P＞0.05). ③The CEA level was significant higher in patients with metastasis of LN(+) than in patients without metastasis of LN(-) (P＜0.05), and no such difference was shown between different mass-size groups(P＞0.05). The increase of CD⁺₄T percentage and the decrease of CD⁺₄/CD⁺₈ ratio were obvious in the CEA(+) group compared with the CEA(-) group(P＜0.01), and CEA was significantly correlated with the CD⁺₄T percentage and the CD⁺₄/CD⁺₈ ratio (P＜0.01). Conclusion： Disorder of the cytoimmunologic situation exists in patients with breast cancer, and it is closely correlated with the highly prognostic factors of mass size and the metastasis situation of axillary lymph nodes.

Key words: Breast neoplasm, Cytoimmunity, T-lymphocyte subsets, Carcinoembryonic antigen