Cytotoxic lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with B cell lymphomas

In order to analyze systemic immune surveillance in patients with B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (B-NHL), we investigated circulating lymphocytes using two-color flow cytometry, The proportions of CD3(-)CD56(+) natural killer (NK) cells and CD8(++(bright)) S6F1(++) killer-effector T cells corresponding to activated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (aCTL) were studied in the peripheral blood of 26 patients with indolent lymphoma (IL) and 24 with aggressive lymphoma (AL). The AL patients with both limited disease and advanced disease had an increased proportion of NK cells. However, this feature was not evident in IL patients with either limited or advanced disease. In contrast, an increased proportion of aCTL was observed only in IL patients with advanced disease. These findings indicate that IL may differ from AL in terms of immune surveillance against neoplastic B cells.