Effect of postoperative early enteral nutrition support on anti-tumor immune response and inflammatory response process in the elderly patients with esophageal cancer

摘要

Objective: To explore the effect of postoperative early enteral nutrition support on anti-tumor immune response and inflammatory response process in the elderly patients with esophageal cancer. Methods: A total of 110 cases of elderly patients with esophageal cancer who underwent radical operation in this hospital between January 2015 and December 2017 were divided into the parenteral nutrition group (n=57) who received parenteral nutrition support and the enteral nutrition group (n=53) who received enteral nutrition support according to the postoperative nutrition intervention methods. The differences in anti-tumor immune response and inflammatory response degree were compared between the two groups of patients immediately after the patients returned to the ward (T0), 48h after nutritional support (T1) and 72h after nutritional support (T2). Results: At T0, there was no statistically significant difference in the contents of Th1/Th2 immune response and Th17/Treg immune response indexes as well as inflammatory mediators in serum between the two groups of patients. At T1 and T2, serum Th1 cytokines IFN-γ and IL-12 contents of enteral nutrition group were higher than those of parenteral nutrition group whereas Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 contents were lower than those of parenteral nutrition group; serum contents of Th17 cytokines IL-6 and IL- 17 as well as Treg cytokines TGF-β and IL-10 were lower than those of parenteral nutrition group; serum inflammatory mediators hs-CRP, PGE and HMGB1 contents were lower than those of parenteral nutrition group. Conclusion: Postoperative early enteral nutrition support can effectively regulate the Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg immune response balance and inhibit the systemic inflammatory response in elderly patients with esophageal cancer.