THE EFFECT OF TUBERCULOSIS ON THE COURSE OF LUNG CARCINOMA IN THE EXPERIMENT

Abstract

Introduction. One of the problems of modern medicine is the low efficiency of treatment of patients with a coexistence of lung cancer and active tuberculosis. Optimal treatment regimens for coexistence pathology have not been developed at present. In recent years, fundamental research aimed to studying the unexplained mechanisms of the occurrence and course of coexistence pathology. The aim of the study was to investigate the peculiarities of the effect of tuberculosis with different drug resistance on the course of lung carcinoma in an experiment. Methods. The study was performed on 72 mice of the C57BL/6 line at the age of two months. To achieve the goal, three groups of laboratory animals were formed: Group 1 – mice infected with the reference strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, which underwent isolated transplantation of Lewis lung epidermoid carcinoma (n=24); Group 2 – mice infected with the clinical strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis 5582 with multidrug resistance, which underwent isolated transplantation of epidermoid lung carcinoma Lewis (n=24); Group 3 – uninfected mice that underwent isolated transplantation of Lewis lung epidermoid carcinoma (n=24). Clinical, radiological, morphological and bacteriological methods were used to compare the studied groups of animals. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS Statistica v23 software package. Results. In group 3, there was significantly (p<0.01) more intensive weight gain by mice due to rapid tumor growth, in contrast to groups 1 and 2. Histological signs of pulmonary tuberculosis were detected in all infected mice (groups 1 and 2) in the form of productive pneumonia. The greatest increase in the lung mass coefficient was detected in group 2 compared to groups 1 and 3, which is explained by the subtotal spread of productive specific pneumonia when infected with a clinical drug-resistant strain of M. Tuberculosis. The lowest dynamics of lung mass coefficient was recorded in group 3. The worst survival was observed in group 2 (median was 22 days, 95% CI=21.4–22.6). Survival in groups 1 and 3 did not significantly differ and was 28 days in both groups (95% CI=25.3–30.7 in group 1, 95% CI=26.0–30.0 for group 3). Conclusion. An experimental study showed that tumor progression slows down in M. tuberculosis infected animals compared to the control group. The coexistence of lung carcinoma and drug-sensitive tuberculosis is accompanied by the best prognosis. The coexistence of Lewis lung carcinoma and drug-resistant tuberculosis is accompanied by a large volume of lung tissue involvement and worse survival.