Long-term intravenous administration of activated autologous lymphocytes for cancer patients does not induce antinuclear antibody and rheumatoid factor.

The treatment of activated autologous lymphocyte can lead to a potent antitumor effect with destruction of autologous cancer cells, but potential adverse autoimmune effects due to destruction of autologous tissue must also be considered. This study was performed to evaluate whether administration of activated autologous lymphocytes induces autoimmune disease. Patients with advanced cancer, who underwent transfer therapy with activated autologous lymphocytes, were eligible for the study. Informed consent was obtained from 22 patients with hepatocelluler carcinoma, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, etc. The variation in activated lymphocyte phenotypes was CD3+/HLA-DR+ activated T lymphocytes, 23% to 99%; including CD4+ cells, 4% to 65%; CD8+ cells, 10 to 91%; and CD16+/ICD56+ NK cells, 1% to 59%. Of the 22 patients, levels of antinuclear antibody and/or rheumatoid factor were above normal limits during the study in the following 5 patients: 3 patients showed no marked changes, one patient a slight decrease in rheumatoid factor and one patient a slight increase in antinuclear antibody during the course of treatment, respectively. The values for these markers of the other 17 patients varied within normal limits during treatment. Mild transient fever occurred in several patients as an adverse event. There were no other adverse reactions. No clinical symptoms or signs suggestive of autoimmune disease occurred in any patient during or after treatment. These results suggested that long-term administration of activated autologous lymphocytes does not induce autoimmune disease.

The pilot experience of immunotherapy-combined photodynamic therapy for advanced gastric cancer in elderly patients.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic efficacy of endoscopic photodynamic therapy (PDT) for advanced gastric cancer is limited. Recent animal studies have clarified the very important role of host immune cells in PDT. We expected a potential cooperative effect of PDT and immunotherapy, and developed immunotherapycombined PDT (I-PDT) for advanced gastric cancer. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We applied I-PDT for two elderly patients with complicated advanced gastric cancer (92- and 89-yr-old males). Tumor bleeding prevented them from leading an ordinary home life. Initial simple PDT was not effective. Patients received over 109 activated T-lymphocyte-predominant autologous immune cells, mainly intravenously, 5x for one course. PDT was performed endoscopically on the day of the third infusion. RESULTS: Two or three courses of I-PDT safely stopped tumor bleeding, and the initial poor prognoses of a few months of survival seemed to be improved (patient 1, over 32 mo; patient 2, 14 mo). CONCLUSIONS: I-PDT was found to be a safe, feasible treatment that could improve symptoms resulting from advanced gastric cancer.