[Cytokines in the treatment of a generalized surgical infection]. / Tsitokiny v lechenii generalizovannoi khirurgicheskoi infektsii.

A novel approach to the treatment of surgical sepsis has been tried: cytokine-based immunotherapy. Human recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) and a mixture of native cytokines obtained by arteriovenous perfusion of xenospleen were used as a source of proinflammatory cytokines. Extracorporeal immunotherapy of 62 patients with surgical sepsis with mononuclear cells treated by autologous IL-2 resulted in a significant decrease of endotoxicosis and effective immunocorrection. Cytokine-based immunotherapy notably decreased the mortality of patients with generalized surgical infection--to 14.6%, which was lower than the expected mortality (35%) and the mortality in the control group (34.5%).

[Cytokines in the treatment and prevention of postoperative infectious complications in patients with colorectal cancer]. / Tsitokiny v lechenii i profilaktike infektsionnykh posleoperatsionnykh oslozhnenii u bol'nykh kolorektal'nym rakom.

Surgery for colorectal carcinoma has supplemented the following cytokine-based procedures: (1) extracorporeal immunotherapy (EIT) with autologous rIL2-activated mononuclear cells for treatment of patients with infectious complications, and (2) extracorporeal infusion immunotherapy with native cytokines (perfusate of xenospleen) to prevent postoperative infectious complications. EIT was followed by an effective correction of T-cell immunodeficiency and rehabilitation of monocytic function; rapid decrease in symptoms of endotoxicity; improved response to conventional therapy, and, as a result, a fall in mortality rates (from 38.9 to 11.7%). Immunotherapy with native cytokines brought about a significant decrease in postoperative complication incidence (36.4-15.8%), the average length of stay in hospital falling by 6.8 days. Immunological correction with cytokines was instrumental in raising the efficacy of surgical treatment of colorectal tumors.