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Immunological studies in patients with central nervous system tumors

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Abstract

Impairment of cell-mediated immunity in patients with primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors has repeatedly been reported but data to demonstrate the undelying immunological defect are not univocal. This report concerns a series of 31 patients harboring a glioma in which we studied:

  1. 1)

    peripheral blood Tlymphocyte subpopulations by monoclonal antibody analysis;

  2. 2)

    cellular responsiveness to mitogens

  3. 3)

    serum immunoglobulin values.

The same parameters were also evaluated in 7 cases of intracranial meningioma and in 8 patients affected by non-proliferative, non-inflammatory CNS diseases. Thirty age-matched healthy volunteers formed the control group.

Neither impairment of Tcells as regard to number, responsiveness and subsets, nor abnormal Ig values were found in these groups. However two patients, harboring respectively a third ventricle low grade astrocytoma and an anterior callosal glioblastoma, presented a striking Tcells impairment. These findings might suggest a correlation between hypothalamus and immune system, as already postulated by several previous experimental and clinical studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Neuro Sciences, Division of Neurosurgery, University ‘La Sapienza’ Medical School, Viale dell'Universita, 30-00185, Rome, Italy

    L. Palmas & Concetta Barbieri

  2. Dept. of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University ‘La Sapienza’ Medical School, Viale dell'Universita, 30-00185, Rome, Italy

    Viviana Moschese, Elena Galli & V. R. M. Lombardi

  3. The Dept. of Immunology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockolm, Sweden

    P. Rossi

Authors
  1. L. Palmas
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  2. Viviana Moschese
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  3. Elena Galli
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  4. Concetta Barbieri
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  5. V. R. M. Lombardi
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  6. P. Rossi
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Palmas, L., Moschese, V., Galli, E. et al. Immunological studies in patients with central nervous system tumors. J Neuro-Oncol 5, 29–35 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162762

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