Immunomodulatory effects of chemotherapy on blood lymphocytes and survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

A better understanding of the immune profile of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the immunomodulatory impact of chemotherapy is essential to develop current therapeutic approaches. Herein, we collected peripheral blood from 20 healthy donors and 50 patients with advanced NSCLC, before and after chemotherapy, followed by phenotypic analysis of lymphocyte subsets and assessment of the correlation between their post-chemotherapy levels and progression-free survival (PFS). Results showed that, before chemotherapy, the levels of CD8 + lymphocytes, PD-1 + CD4 + , Th2, and Th17 cells were elevated in patients’ peripheral blood, in contrast to natural killer (NK) cells and Th1 cells. Besides, there was no remarkable difference in the frequency of PD-1 + CD8 + cells between patients and healthy…