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.

中文翻译：

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弥漫性桥脑神经胶质瘤患者自然杀伤细胞减少。

目的弥漫性桥脑神经胶质瘤（DIPG）仍然是小儿脑肿瘤患者死亡的主要原因。其桥脑的位置和侵略性使开发有效的治疗成为儿科肿瘤学的一项持续挑战。尽管研究发现神经胶质瘤的标志性特征之一是免疫抑制，但仍不清楚DIPG患者的免疫状态。方法我们测试了四名经放射诊断的DIPG患者的淋巴细胞谱。所有四名患者在采血前均未接受任何类固醇，放疗和化疗。结果我们发现在所有四种情况下，自然杀伤（NK）细胞水平降低，而B细胞水平升高。结论这些发现提示，NK细胞减少和B细胞增加可能有助于DIPG患者的肿瘤发生和生长。