Summary
The usefulness of LMS in postoperative immunochemotherapy of gastric cancer was investigated. In compliance with the protocol, MMC was given at a dose of 20 mg on the day of gastrectomy, and an additional 10 mg on the next day IV. The patients receiving 600 mg Tegafur daily were then divided into two groups according to whether LMS was also given or not. LMS was administered for 3 days before the operation in a daily dose of 150 mg and for 1 year or more after operation according to a schedule of 3 days' administration followed by an 11-day interval. The 2-year follow-up demonstrated that in stage III patients, the LMS (+) regimen was superior to the LMS (−) regimen, since the former prolonged the relapse-free interval significantly. The survival rate for stage III disease was also significantly higher in the LMS (+) than in the LMS (−) group. There was no significant difference in the incidence of subjective or objective side-effects between two groups. The incidence of agranulocytosis was comparable in the two groups.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amery WK (1978) Final results of a multicenter placebo-controlled levamisole study of resectable lung cancer. Cancer Treat Rep 62:1677–1683
Amery WK (1982) Clinical experience with adjuvant levamisole in controlled cancer studies. Curr Concepts Immunol Cancer Immunomodulation, Amsterdam, 585–592
Cox DR (1972) Regression models and life tables. J Roy Stat Soc [B] 34:187–220
Cutler S, Ederer F (1958) Maximum utilization of the life table method in analyzing survival. J Chronic Dis 8:699–712
Gehan E (1956) A generalized Wilcoxon test for comparing arbitrarily singly-censored sample. Biometrika 52:203–224
General Rules (1981) General rules for the Gastric Cancer Study in Surgery and Pathology, 10th ed. Jpn J Surg 11:127–139
Gonzalez RL, Spitler LE, Sagebiel RW (1978) Effect of levamisole as a surgical adjuvant therapy for malignant melanoma. Cancer Treat Rep 62:1703–1707
Hattori T, Ito I, Miwa K, Hirata K, Fujita H, Endo Y (1964) Large-amount administration of mitomycin C during gastrectomy. Jpn J Cancer Clin 10:96–105
Imanaga H, Nakazato J (1981) Three prospective controlled studies. 1. J Clin Surg 36:175–183
Inokuchi K, Tamada R (1981) Three prospective controlled studies. 3. J Clin Surg 36:197–204
Janssen PA (1976) The levamisole story. Prog Res 20:347–383
Kimura T, Koyama Y (1981) Three prospective controlled studies. 2. J Clin Surg 36:185–195
Mantel N (1963) Chi-square test with one degree of freedom: Extention of the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. J Stat Assoc 58:690–700
Miwa H, Orita K (1979) Immunochemotherapy of gastric cancer with levamisole. Jpn J Cancer Chemother 6:1363–1374
Miwa H, Kawai T, Nakahara H, Kurose Y, Kobayashi S, Minato H, Mannami T, Konaga E, Orita K (1979) Degradation in cell-mediated immunity by surgical intervention and its prevention by levamisole. Clin Immunol 11:121–127
Pavlowsky S, Muriel FS, Garay G, Svarch E (1981) Chemoimmunotherapy with levamisole in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer 48:1500–1507
Renoux MG, Renoux M (1971) Immunostimulant effect of an immidothiazole in the immunisation of mice infected with Brucella abortus. C R Acad Sci [D] 272:394–350
Rojas AF, Feierstein JN, Glait HM, Olivari AJ (1978) Levamisole action in breast cancer stage III. In: Terry WD, Windhorst D (eds) Immunotherapy of cancer: Present status of trials in man. Raven, New York, pp 635–645
Saito T (1981) Assessment criteria of enhanced chemotherapeutic effects on solid cancer. Assessment criteria of chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic effects on cancer and development of anticancer agents. Science Forum, Tokyo
Salmon S, Alexanian R, Dixon D (1980) Chemoimmunotherapy for multiple myeloma: Effect of levamisole during maintenance. Presented at the second International Conference on Immunotherapy of Cancer, Bethesda, April 1980
Shimizu N, Hirai Y, Oku H, Hamazoe R, Kanayama H, Ozaki Y, Maeta M, Koga S (1980) Levamisole treatment for depression of postoperative cellular immunity. Jpn J Cancer Clin 26:24–28
Shiraki S, Mori H, Kadomoto N, Nakano T, Yamada Y, Noda K (1982) Adjuvant immunotherapy of carcinoma coli with Levamisole. Prevention of immunological depression following surgical therapy and radiotherapy. Int J Immunopharmacol 4:73–80
Symoens J, Veys E, Mielants M, Pinals R (1978) Adverse reaction to levamisole. Cancer Treat Rep 62:1721–1730
Verhaengen H (1978) Postoperative levamisole in colorectal cancer. In: Rainer H (ed) Immunotherapy of malignant disease. Schattauer, Stuttgart, pp 94–101
Wakui A, Kikuchi K (1981) Cooperative evaluation of efficacy of levamisole (LMS) against advanced gastrointestinal cancer. J Jpn Soc Cancer Ther 16:362
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group, Japan Levamisole Research Association
Chairmen of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group, Japan LMS Research Association
Controller of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group, Japan LMS Research Association
Members of the Data Collection and Analysis Subcommittee
This study was carried out by the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group, Japan LMS Research Association (directed by Prof. Kiyoshi Inokuchi, Dept. of Surgery, Kyushu University and Prof. Eiro Tsubura, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Tokushima University). The results were presented in part at the 19th General Meeting of the Japanese Society for Gastroenterological Surgery in February, 1982
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Niimoto, M., Hattori, T., Ito, I. et al. Levamisole in postoperative adjuvant immunochemotherapy for gastric cancer. Cancer Immunol Immunother 18, 13–18 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00205393
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00205393