Given the unique role of immunomodulation in cancer progression and the distinctive need to elucidate possible modifiers of this process, the supplementation of general anaesthesia with epidural analgesia might exert a favourable effect on the NK cell count and CD4+ levels in a subset of patients subjected to gastric or colon surgery, while TNF-α and IL-6 levels, as well as CD3+, the NLR and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio remained unaffected. Here, TNF is linked to cancer.