Israel journal of medical sciences
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Comparative Study
General anesthesia during excision of a mouse tumor accelerates postsurgical growth of metastases by suppression of natural killer cell activity.
Our previous studies indicated that anesthetic drugs cause acceleration of postoperative metastasis of mouse tumors. We tested whether this augmentation could be attributed to a decrease in natural killer (NK) activity. ⋯ Treatment of mice with poly I:C abolished the accelerated growth of metastases following excision of the tumor under ketamine or halothane anesthesia. On the other hand, treatment with poly I:C seemed to have no effect on acceleration of postoperative metastasis in mice anesthetized with N2O or thiopental sodium.