T-regulatory lymphocytes in peripheral blood of gastric and colorectal cancer patients

Table 1 Clinicopathological characteristics

	No. of cases
Sex
Male	42
Female	28
Age (yr)
≤ 65	32
> 65	38
Tumor grade
1	9
2 or 3	61
Lymph node metastases
No	24
Yes	46
Distant metastases
No	41
Yes	29
Stage (AJCC 2002)
I	13
II	9
III	13
IV	35

Table 2 Mean (SD) count of CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells

	Colorectal cancer	P1	Gastric cancer	P1	Overall	P1
Overall	15.7 (21.8)		12.2 (14.3)	0.449
Sex		0.779		0.912		0.801
Male	16.9 (25.2)		11.3 (11.9)		14.4 (20.3)
Female	13.5 (14.6)		13.4 (17.5)		13.5 (15.9)
Age (yr)		0.849		0.080		0.309
≤ 65	18.7 (28.5)		10.3 (16.9)		15.0 (24.1)
> 65	12.7 (12.2)		13.7 (12.4)		13.2 (12.2)
Tumor grade		0.501	NA	1.000		0.865
1	16.8 (15.5)				14.9 (15.5)
2 or 3	15.9 (24.8)				15.2 (21.9)
Lymph node metastases		0.210		0.003		0.013
No	19.9 (28.1)		30.3 (27.6)		22.0 (27.7)
Yes	11.0 (10.4)		9.6 (8.0)		10.1 (9.0)
Distant metastases		0.596		0.882		0.447
No	17.6 (24.6)		15.8 (20.4)		17.0 (23.1)
Yes	10.0 (7.8)		9.9 (8.3)		9.9 (8.0)
Stage		0.267		0.195		0.088
I or II	19.9 (28.9)		33.4 (30.9)		22.4 (29.0)
III or IV	10.9 (10.4)		9.4 (7.8)		9.9 (8.9)

¹Mann-Whitney U test. NA: Not applicable.

Table 3 Mean (SD) proportion of CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ cells in the CD4⁺ population (percentage)

	Colorectal cancer	P1	Gastric cancer	P1	Overall	P1
Overall	2.18 (1.79)		2.01 (1.56)	0.760
Sex		0.332		0.455		0.820
Male	2.31 (1.68)		1.89 (1.62)		2.12 (1.65)
Female	1.98 (2.01)		2.18 (1.51)		2.08 (1.75)
Age (yr)		0.456		0.610		0.777
≤ 65	2.32 (1.58)		1.88 (1.63)		2.13 (1.59)
> 65	2.05 (2.00)		2.11 (1.54)		2.08 (1.76)
Tumor grade		0.477		1.000		0.758
1	2.46 (1.72)		0		2.19 (1.80)
2 or 3	2.11 (1.90)		2.10 (1.36)		2.09 (1.80)
Lymph node metastases		0.316		0.388		0.172
No	2.60 (2.13)		2.73 (2.04)		2.63 (2.07)
Yes	1.73 (1.25)		1.94 (1.53)		1.85 (1.41)
Distant metastases		0.818		0.854		0.798
No	2.23 (1.98)		1.95 (1.72)		2.14 (1.88)
Yes	2.03 (1.09)		2.05 (1.49)		2.04 (1.36)
Stage		0.254		0.423		0.138
I or II	2.56 (2.22)		2.75 (2.35)		2.59 (2.18)
III or IV	1.66 (1.33)		1.66 (1.32)		1.66 (1.31)

¹Mann-Whitney U test. The Tregs/CD4⁺ ratio in healthy volunteers group was 2.1%, and this was equal to that observed in gastric cancer patients.