ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 1998 December;40(4):314-8

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Effect of T-activin therapy on indomethacin modulation of lymphoproliferative response in vitro of melanoma patients

StanoJevic-Bakic N., Vuckovic-Dekic L., Milosevic D., Sasic M.

From the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia Pasterova 14, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia

Background. Several stud­ies ­showed ­that PGE-medi­at­ed immu­no­sup­pres­sion in can­cer ­patients may be dif­fe­ren­tial­ly affect­ed by con­ven­tion­al onco­log­ic ther­a­py.
Methods. Since ­there is lit­tle evi­dence ­about the ­action of immu­no­ther­a­py on ­this sup­pres­sion mech­a­nism, we inves­ti­gat­ed the ­effect of ther­a­py ­with a thym­ic ­agent - T-acti­vin, on in ­vitro mod­ula­tion of lym­phop­ro­lif­er­a­tive ­response (LPR) by indo­meth­a­cin.
Results. The ­results dem­on­strat­ed ­that indo­meth­a­cin add­ed in ­vitro ­enhanced LPR in ear­ly ­stage mel­a­no­ma ­patients ­before ther­a­py. T-acti­vin ther­a­py ­as an ­adjunct to sur­gery ­improved ­this lym­pho­cyte func­tion; the ­post-ther­a­py in ­vitro addi­tion of indo­meth­a­cin did not sig­nif­i­cant­ly ­affect mito­gen ­response. However, in ­those ­patients ­whose LPR was insuf­fi­cient­ly ­enhanced by immu­no­ther­a­py (3/8), indo­meth­a­cin had ­improved ­their lym­pho­cyte ­response. In the con­trol ­patient ­group treat­ed by sur­gery ­alone, indo­meth­a­cin sig­nif­i­cant­ly ­enhanced LPR in ­vitro six ­months ­after oper­a­tion. Although ­obtained in a ­small num­ber of ­patients, our ­results indi­cate ­that the enhanc­ing ­effect of T-acti­vin ther­a­py on lym­phop­ro­lif­er­a­tive ­response may be, at ­least in ­part, due to the ­effect on PGE-medi­at­ed sup­pres­sor ­cell activ­ity.
Conclusions. Furthermore, ­post-ther­a­py in ­vitro test­ing may indi­cate a pos­sible use­ful­ness of ­this ­drug com­bi­na­tion in ­some of the ear­ly ­stage mel­a­no­ma ­patients.