Cellular immunity in breast cancer patients completing taxane treatment.

Purpose: A field study of postchemotherapy immune functioning relative to the use of taxanes is reported. Immune responses in breast cancer patients were analyzed as a function of whether patients received taxane as part of their adjuvant chemotherapy.

Experimental Design: Immune levels of 227 stage II/III breast cancer patients were measured immediately after surgery prior to chemotherapy and again 12 months later when all chemotherapies had been completed. T-cell blastogenesis and natural killer (NK) cell lysis levels of patients receiving taxanes (n = 55) were compared with levels of patients not receiving taxanes (n = 172).

Results: Regression analyses were conducted. The administration of taxane as part of combination chemotherapy predicted increased T-cell blastogenesis and NK cell cytotoxicity after the conclusion of all chemotherapies. For the Taxane group, average phytohemagglutinin-induced blastogenesis was 37% higher and NK cell cytotoxicity was 39% higher than the values for the No-Taxane group.

Conclusions: Data from group comparisons with appropriate controls in a sizable clinical sample contravene traditional wisdom that taxanes suppress patients' immune cell functions. Problems in generalizing direct-contact laboratory models to the field of cancer treatment are highlighted.