Fig. 2

Percentages of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood. a, b The percentages of peripheral CD3⁺ subsets are lower in SCLC patients than healthy controls, 41.9 ± 14.5 vs. 55.6 ± 11.8, p < 0.001; c, d CD3⁺CD4⁺ subsets are lower in SCLC patients, 27.0 ± 9.43 vs. 33.5 ± 5.08, p = 0.0014; e, f there is no significant statistic difference of CD3⁺CD8⁺ subsets between the SCLC patients and controls, 30.9 ± 12.8 vs. 28.8 ± 9.97, p = 0.4914; g, h the percentage of CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ subsets is elevated of SCLC patients compared to that of healthy controls, 6.11 [2.13–13.5] vs. 3.8 [2.74–8.30], p = 0.0083. Differences between two groups were determined by Student’s t test or Mann–Whitney test (Additional file 1: Table S1)