Figure 1.

Median total lymphocyte counts dropped significantly with the addition of radiation. Twenty patients (solid red line) received two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiation. Twenty-seven patients (broken blue line) received only concurrent chemoradiation. While neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not reduce TLCs, 2 months after beginning combined radiation/chemotherapy (2nd gray arrow), TLCs fell by 68%. Gray arrows depict the start of radiation exposure in both treatments.