Decreased natural killer cells in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma patients.

PURPOSE: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) remains the leading cause of death among pediatric brain tumor patients. Its pontine location and aggressive nature make developing effective treatment an ongoing challenge in pediatric oncology. Although studies have found that one of the hallmark features of glioma is immunosuppression, the immune status of DIPG patient is not clearly understood.

METHODS

We tested the lymphocyte profile in four radiologically diagnosed DIPG patients. All the four patients did not receive any steroids, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy before the collection of blood.

RESULTS

We found decreased natural killer (NK) cell level and increased B cell level in all four cases.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggested that decreased NK cells and increased B cells may aid the tumorigenesis and growth seen in DIPG patient. Increased NK and decreased B cells may be the future direction for the treatment of DIPG patient.