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Treatment of head and neck cancers with BRMs

Prolongation of survival

  • Published:
Biotherapy

Abstract

It has been reported that immunologic function is deteriorated in head and neck cancer patients by primary therapies such as surgery, irradiation and chemotherapy or tumor itself. As previously described by us, immunologic dysfunction in such patients may be recovered by treatment with BRMs.

In the present study, we investigated the effects of BRMs on survival of patients who had primarily been treated in our clinic. Fifty-one patients (23 patients; Stage I or Stage II, 28 patients; Stage III or Stage IV) were treated with BRMs (BRM group), and 49 patients (22 patients; Stage I or Stage II, 27 patients; Stage III or Stage IV) were employed as controls (Control group). The results obtained were as follows: (1) In patients of all Stages, the survival period was significantly (p<0.05) longer in BRM group than in Control group; (2) The survival periods of patients of Stage I or Stage II were not different between the groups; and (3) The survival period of BRM group was significantly (p<0.05) longer than that of Control group in patients of Stage III or Stage IV. There were observed more patients in BRM group who survived for a prolonged period.

These results suggest that BRMs may be useful for recovering immunologic function in head and neck cancer patients particularly of Stage III or Stage IV who usually receive multimodality therapy.

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Abbreviations

CD:

cluster of differentiation

BRM:

biological response modifier

FITC:

fluorescein isothiocyanate

IAP:

immunosuppressive acidic protein

NK:

natural killer

PHA:

phytohemaglutinin

SCC:

squmous cell carcinoma

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology Tokyo Medical College, 6-7-1, Nishishinjuku, shinjuku-ku, 160, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomoyuki Yoshida M.D., Tetsuro Saeki, Yumiko Aoyama, Tadao Okudaira, Takuya Okada & Sotaro Funasaka

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  1. Tomoyuki Yoshida M.D.
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  2. Tetsuro Saeki
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  3. Yumiko Aoyama
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  4. Tadao Okudaira
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  5. Takuya Okada
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  6. Sotaro Funasaka
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Yoshida, T., Saeki, T., Aoyama, Y. et al. Treatment of head and neck cancers with BRMs. Biotherapy 10, 115–120 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02678538

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