Material and Method: The present prospective study was carried out in Xiangyang Central Hospital, China, between January 2008 and August 2014. Sixty-four cases of antral carcinoma, subjected to radical resection of gastric cancer, were randomly divided into general anesthesia group (GA group) and general anesthesia combined with continuous epidural anesthesia group (GCEA group). The peripheral venous bloods were sampled to determine the content of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, T-lymphocyte subsets, and natural killer (NK) cells. The data was analyzed by SPSS 13.0.

Results: After operation, the content of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 in GCEA group were significant lower than that in GA group (p<0.05). At the end of the operation, the content of T-lymphocyte subsets and NK cells in GA and GCEA groups descended significantly, but GA group was larger (p<0.01 vs. p<0.05). Seventy-two hours after the operation, the content of T-lymphocyte subsets and NK cells in GCEA group were back to normal, but it was significantly lower than before anesthesia (p<0.05) in the GA group.

Conclusion: Compared to GA, GCEA is a better anesthesia method for gastric cancer patient who will undergo operation because it has lower stress reaction and less impact on immune function.

Keywords: Anesthesia, Stress reaction, Immune function, Gastric cancer, Operation