Abstract
The immunological functions of 60 patients with head and neck cancers and 27 patients with gastrointestinal cancer were evaluated using in vitro natural killer cell (NK) activity, lymphokine activated killer cells (LAK) and OK-432 activated killer cells, as well as by in vivo PPD and Su-PS skin tests. There were significant differences of the above three activities between stage I cancer patients and stage III and/or IV (p<0.05). The PPD skin test corresponded significantly to LAK activity, while Su-PS corresponded significantly to OK-432 activated killer cell activity (r=0.5558; p<0.05, and r=0.4753; p<0.01, respectively). Responses to interleukin-2 and OK-432 of stage IV patients with head and neck cancers were different from those of stage IV with gastrointestinal cancer. These in vitro assays were very useful for the evaluation of immunological function in head and neck cancer patients, especially before any treatments with biologocal response modifiers.
