J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 87(9): 975-979, 1986

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Report on the annual meeting

IMMUNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN PATIENTS WITH CARCINOMA OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS

It is well known that immunological activities are depressed with the advance of the disease in cancer patients. Lymphocyte blastogenesis and NK cell activities decrease significantly by esophageal and gastric cancer as compared with breast cancer. On the other hand, immune inhibitory factors are increasing with the advance of cancer；many inhibitory factors have been demonstrated in the sera of the cancer patients. Recently, suppressor cell activities have been worth noticing in the cancer bearing host.
Con-A induced suppressor cell activities were remarkably elevated in the spleen cells and the high level of spontaneous suppressor cell activities was demonstrated in the splenic vein. In gastric cancer, the highest level of Con-A induced suppressor cell activities was observed in stage III patients and that of spontaneous suppressor cell activities in stage IV patients. Thus, it may be speculated that Con-A induced suppressor cells are the precursor cells, contained abundantly in the spleen, maturated by the stimulation of various factors related with the advance of cancer and finally released into the splenic vein in the form of spontaneous suppressor cells.
Taking these immunological characteristics into consideration, the most desirable immunotherapy for carcinoma of the digestive organs can be summarized as follows :
1) Surgical adjuvant immuno-(chemo)-therapy.
2) A positive splenectomy for advanced cancer.
3) Elimination of immune inhibitory factors.
a) plasma exchange
b) adoptive immunotherapy with IL-2
4) Intratumoral administration of BRM (OK-432, Interferon, TNF, WPG).

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