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Erschienen in:
01.10.2011 | Original article
Immuno-cell therapy with antecedent surgery has superior actuarial survival to immuno-cell therapy without antecedent surgery for advanced cancers
Erschienen in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy | Ausgabe 10/2011
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Background
Immuno-cell therapy using activated lymphocytes (ALs) and/or dendritic cells (DCs) is considered one of the less toxic supportive therapies compared with conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, especially for the treatment for advanced cancers. To improve the efficacy of immuno-cell therapy for such cancer, clinical data were analyzed in this preliminary study.
Patients and methods
The clinical data of 38 consecutive patients with advanced cancer who underwent at least one course of treatment with ALs and/or matured DCs, with or without antecedent surgery or additional conventional chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, were evaluated.
Results
Of the 23 patients who received surgery before immuno-cell therapy, 2 (8.7%) showed a complete response (CR) and 15 (65%) showed a partial response (PR) or prolonged stable disease (SD). Of the 15 remaining patients who did not undergo antecedent surgery, there was no CR but 7 (46%) showed PR or prolonged SD. Actuarial survival is one of the important indices for the evaluation of anticancer therapies that present longer durable efficacy of immunotherapy compared with conventional anticancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and actuarial survival analysis revealed that immuno-cell therapy with antecedent surgery afforded significantly longer survival than immuno-cell therapy without antecedent surgery (P < 0.001).
Conclusion
Antecedent surgical resection of tumors is advisable for obtaining better efficacy of immuno-cell therapy, even in advanced cancer patients.