Effect of propofol and isoflurane on NK Cells: A pilot study on perioperative breast cancer patients from Eastern India

Introduction: In onco-anesthesiology, the selection between intravenous and volatile anesthetics for maintaining NK cell response during cancer surgery has been an ambiguous area.  In the absence of any such comparative Indian report, this pilot study aimed to investigate the effect of intravenous anesthetic, Propofol, and volatile anesthetic, Isoflurane on the NK cell-mediated immune-inflammatory response of perioperative breast cancer patients.
Materials and Methods: Treatment naive breast cancer patients (N, 50) selected for surgery were randomly subjected to either Isoflurane (N, 25) or Propofol (N, 25) anesthetic group. The peripheral blood samples were collected 1 day before surgery (Pre), 1 h after incision (Intra) and 48 h after surgery (Post).  The blood samples were subjected to immunophenotyping, activation, degranulation, and cytokine analysis.
Results: The frequency of NK cell populations did not differ between the Isoflurane and Propofol groups irrespective of cancer stage II/III. NK cell degranulation marker CD107a and activation marker CD335 expression were significantly reduced in the postoperative period compared to the preoperative group in the Isoflurane group but Propofol did not inflict such alterations. Both Isoflurane/Propofol elicited similar trends in the cytokine profiles of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-15, interferon (IFN)-g and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β levels. Isoflurane significantly increased IL-8 during the intraoperative period and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 during the postoperative period whereas no such changes were observed with Propofol.
Conclusion: This pilot study indicated that Propofol partially proved better over Isoflurane in maintaining the activation (CD335) and degranulation of NK cells (CD107a) and alleviating inflammation (IL-8 and MMP-9) during the perioperative period in the breast cancer patients.