Abstract

Nasser Ghaly Yousif, Kareem G.Mohammed, Samar Muayad Mohammed, Najah R. Hadi, Fadhil G. Alamran, Song Zheng, Maitham G. Yousif, Jillen Lee, Jonthan Adrienne, Thekra G. Altimimi, Salwa Riyadh Hussien

The present study aims to assess the role of NK-cell in the prognosis of NSCLC. Samples and Methods: A total of sixty newly diagnosed patients with NSCLC were included in this study. Fifteen of them were female and (45) male and then patients were followed up for six months. The diagnosis is revised by the supervisor Oncologist. ELISA technique was used to investigate the two immunological variables (NK & INF-γ). The results show, the mean of NK cell significantly increased from as small as (8.016) among NSCLC cases with an early stage to as high as (14.293) among cases with advanced stages (P =0.001), while in INF-γ test,the quantity of INF-γ was decreased gradually in a mean of (0.13) among metastatic stages of pulmonary cancer compared with an early stage where mean about (0.229); P=0.001. Furthermore, the linear correlation coefficients show there isa strong positive correlation between NK cell very strong positive relationship between the level of NK cell (NKG2A/CD94) and staging (r= 0.608). Meanwhile, strong negative linear correlation coefficients that mean the level of INF-γ decrease with a bad prognosis of NSCLC patients (r= - 0.486). Moreover, by using Kaplan-Mier test the mortality rate of NSCLC patients increased (45% & 59%) with high levels of NK cells concentration respectively during a maximum of six months follow up periods. Meanwhile,the cumulative proportion of deaths in NSCLC patients at six months increased with the lowest tercile of INF-γ (60%). A high expressionof NKG2A/CD94 of CD56bright CD16- in peripheral blood of NSCLC patients correlates with bad prognosis which may be used as the prognostic marker while a high level of INFγ refers to the good prognosis.Low cytotoxicity of NK correlated with a low level of INF-γ and both of them decreased in concentration after three and six months of follow up post- treatments.