Surgical excision is the mainstay of treatment for tongue cancer. However, surgery-induced immunosuppression has been implicated in the development of post-operative septic complications and neoplasm metastasis. General anesthesia is considered to not only suppress surgical stress, but also affect the immune function directly，such as altering the number and activity of immune cells. It is reported that some anesthetics increase susceptibility to tumor metastasis, apparently by suppressing natural killer cell activity. Different anesthetic techniques and anesthetics used in anesthesia have shown different effects on immunity. Many of the studies were animal trials or performed in vitro; in addition, most are focused on a single drug. To date, there is little published prospective clinical research designed specifically to investigate the effects of different general anesthetic technique on immune function in patients with oral malignant tumors. The aim of this study is going to characterize the immune response of patients undergoing surgery for tongue cancer under 3 types of general anesthesia.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All the patients were scheduled for elective surgery for tongue cancer under general anesthesia. None of the patients had a history of endocrine, immune and circulatory system diseases;
• Exclusion criteria were also contraindications for receiving chemotherapy

Exclusion Criteria:

• contraindications for receiving chemotherapy,
• receiving perioperative blood transfusion, or
• preoperative and perioperative treatment with hormones and immunomodulatory agent.

Patients who suffered from any surgical complications such as infection were also excluded from our study.

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