ABSTRACT
The bronchoalveolar compartment can be easily investigated with BAL (bronchoalveolar lavage) before and after antiblastic therapy. We studied 50 patients affected by primary lung cancer, of whom 31 served as a control group and 19 were submitted to BAL after chemo- and/or radiotherapy. Data from BAL performed in an unaffected lung area show that antiblastic therapy can produce alterations in the terminal airways without clinical evidence. Chemotherapy causes a significant impairment of the alveolo-capillary barrier. Radiotherapy is able to affect lymphocytes, with a CD4/CD8 reduction. The concomitance of both therapies produces synergistic effects. Immunomodulant therapy with thymostimulin in otherwise untreated lung cancer patients seems able to modify alveolar lymphocyte number and subsets, but these are preliminary data which need further substantiation.
Subject(s)
Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid/cytology , Lung Neoplasms/therapy , Thymus Extracts/therapeutic use , CD4-CD8 Ratio , Combined Modality Therapy , Humans , Leukocyte Count , Lung Neoplasms/drug therapy , Lung Neoplasms/pathology , Lung Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Lymphocytes/immunologyABSTRACT
The phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages in a group of patients with stage I and stage II fresh sarcoidosis has been studied in comparison with a group of healthy volunteers. The phagocytic activity has been measured by means of chemiluminescent emission recording. While no difference in the emission of chemiluminescence has been detected in polymorphonuclear leukocytes of patients and control subjects, a greater emission of chemiluminescence has been noted in the alveolar macrophages of sarcoid patients. Such a difference is statistically significant; its possible relation to alveolar inflammation has been considered.
