title: Impact of surgery and epirubicin intravesical chemotherapy on peripheral blood dendritic cell subsets in patients with superficial urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Superficial urothelial carcinoma (SUC) of the bladder is a common urinary tract tumor in China. There is a high recurrence rate of this tumor even after surgery and intravesical instillation. Previous reports have described a suppression of the immune system in cancer patients. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in the induction of an effective antitumor immune response. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of surgery and epirubicin intravesical chemotherapy (IC) on peripheral blood DCs in subsets of patients with bladder SUC.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 66 SUC patients and 38 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. All the patients had undergone transurethral resection (TUR) of their cancer and adjunctive IC after tumor removal. The patients were divided into a non-recurrence group (n = 40) and a recurrence group (n = 26) based on the presence or absence of tumor recurrence. Blood samples were taken preoperatively (PreOP), on postoperative days (POD) 1 and 7, and at postoperative month (POM) 3. Flow cytometric analysis was used for the determination and quantitation of the surface markers CD80 and CD86 in circulating DC subsets.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The preoperative percentages of myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and expression of CD80 and CD86 were impaired in SUC patients compared to healthy controls (P < 0.05). The percentages of mDCs and these surface markers decreased significantly on POD 1 and increased on POD 7, remaining higher than the preoperative values in POM 3 (P < 0.05). The percentages of mDCs, and CD80 and CD86 in the non-recurrence group on PreOP, POD 7, and POM 3 were higher than those in recurrence group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgical removal of SUC and adjunctive IC were associated with improved circulating mDC counts and function. Persistent depression of mDC counts and function after treatment in recurrence patients indicated lower antitumor immunity that may lead to tumor recurrence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Lin-lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yu-hai
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Chen-xue
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015251:Epirubicin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000601:surgery*
chemical_list: D015251:Epirubicin