Immune function in newly diagnosed children with malignancy.

BACKGROUND Tumor genesis of many pediatric malignancies remains unclear. Data of immune function are lacking at diagnosis. We prospectively analyzed 109 pediatric patients with malignancy at diagnosis. METHODS Lymphocyte subpopulations were characterized by FACS, TREC-assay, and Immunoscope, cytokines by FACS and ELISA. OBSERVATIONS We detected higher values of CD4(+) T cells and consecutively shifted CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio in all patients compared with the control group. In patients with lymphoma, interleukin-2 was upregulated in all subpopulations. CONCLUSIONS On the basis of these findings an altered immune function could be found in children with different malignancies at diagnosis. Further investigations are necessary to identify tumor-related immune deficiency for novel therapeutic approaches.