title: Long-term effects on the immune system following local radiation therapy for breast cancer. III. Changes of spontaneous and lectin dependent cellular cytotoxicity.
abstract: Long-term effects of local radiotherapy (45 Gy) on the spontaneous and PHA-mediated cytotoxicity of the peripheral blood lymphocyte population was studied in disease-free breast cancer patients 5-6 and 10-11 years after treatment. The patients were all part of a randomized trial in which pre- or post-operative radiotherapy was evaluated against surgery only. PHA-mediated cytotoxicity for 51Cr-labelled chicken erythrocytes seemed to be somewhat increased in patients who were irradiated 5-6 years earlier (p less than 0.025). This increase was not detectable after a disease-free period of 10-11 years. No significant differences between the various treatment groups were observed for spontaneous cytotoxicity against Chang and K 562 cells. The proportion of Leu 7+ lymphocytes was significantly increased in patients who received radiation therapy 5-6 years earlier (p = 0.029) and there was a significant correlation between PHA-mediated cytotoxicity and proportion of Leu7+ cells.
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000528:radiation effects*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D008433:Mathematics; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000494:pharmacology; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011300:Preoperative Care; D011897:Random Allocation; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D010835:Phytohemagglutinins