For breast cancer patients, surgery remains the cornerstone in treatment. Perioperative and postoperative period is associated with impaired immune function that can have profound implications for cancer patients in terms of tumor recurrence and metastases. The three main factors include surgery and related neuroendocrine stress response, anesthetic drugs, including opioid analgesics and postoperative pain. The most investigated immune cells are natural killer (NK) cells that are affected by both anesthesia and surgery. It has been demonstrated that ketamine, thiopental, volatile anesthetics, fentanyl and morphine, but not propofol, remifentanil or tramadol reduce the number of circulating NK cells and depress their toxicity. The level of NK cells' cytotoxicity is inversely proportional to the stage and spread of cancer. Regional anesthesia and its potential beneficial effects on the perioperative immune response and long-term outcome after surgery has been investigated as an alternative to general anesthesia in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. In this paper, we present a review of literature aimed to assess the impact of regional anesthesia techniques on the immune response in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery and how it compares to general anesthesia. Keywords: breast cancer surgery, general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, immunosuppression, immune response Za pacijente s rakom dojke operacija je neizostavni dio terapijskog postupka. Predoperativno i postoperativno razdoblje je povezano s oslabljenom imunoloskom funkcijom koja moze imati znacajne posljedice za bolesnike s karcinomom u smislu recidiva tumora i metastaza.Tri su glavna cimbenika odgovorna za takve promjene i ukljucuju operaciju i s njom povezan neuroendokrini stresni odgovor, anestetike ukljucujuci opioidne analgetike i postoperativnu bol. Najcesce istrazivane imunoloske stanice su prirodne stanice ubojice (NK) na koje utjecu i anestezioloski i kirurski postupak. Pokazano je da ketamin, tiopental, hlapljivi anestetici, fentanilimorfin, ali ne i propofol, remifentanil i tramadol, smanjuju broj cirkulirajucih NK stanica i njihovu citotoksicnost. Razina citotoksicnosti NK stanica obrnuto je proporcionalna stadiju i prosirenosti karcinoma. Regionalna anestezija i njezin moguci povoljan ucinak na predoperativni imunoloski odgovor i dugorocni ishod nakon operacije istrazivani su kao alternativa opcoj anesteziji u bolesnica koje su podvrgnute operaciji karcinoma dojke. Cilj ovog pregleda literature je procjena utjecaja regionalne anestezije na imunoloski odgovor u pacijentica podvrgnutih operaciji karcinoma dojke te njezina usporedba s opcom anestezijom. Kljucne rijeci: operacija karcinoma dojke, opc'a anestezija, regionalna anestezija, imunosupresija, imunoloski odgovor