A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Impact of Dexmedetomidine on Breast Cancer Recurrence After Surgery

Women diagnosed with breast cancer undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia will be randomly allocated to dexmedetomidine group or control group. Patients from both groups will receive midazolam, propofol, fentanyl, remifentanil and CIS atracurium for total intravenous anesthesia. BIS value will be controlled between 40-60 during surgery. Patients of dexmedetomidine group will receive a loading does of 1ug/kg dexmedetomidine since 15 mins before induction, and receive another 1ug/kg of dexmedetomidine at a rate of 0.5ug/kg/h for 2 continuous hours during surgery. Patients of control group will receive same amount of normal saline. Patients will be followed up for 36 months to measure the incidence of cancer recurrence and metastasis. Serum form patients of both groups will be collected at 24 h after surgery. The number of CD3+ , CD4+, CD8+ cells and NK cells in the serum will be compared between the two groups. Serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-12，IL-4 and VEGF will also be measured and compared.