[The effect of intraperitoneal administration of OK-432 with recombinant interleukin-2 to patients with peritonitis carcinomatosa of recurrent gynecological cancer and changes in ascitic lymphocyte subsets].

The effect of intraperitoneal administration of OK-432 followed by intraperitoneal instillation of recombinant interleukin-2(rIL-2) was examined in tumor bearing animals and in four recurrent gynecological cancer patients with peritonitis carcinomatosa which had been resistant to chemotherapeutic drugs. Seven days after intraperitoneal inoculation of tumor cells (10(6) cells/body of MH134 hepatoma into C3H/He mice and 10(5) cells/body of Meth-A fibrosarcoma into BALB/C mice, respectively), OK-432 was administered intraperitoneally. Two days later, a 14 day course of daily intraperitoneal instillation of rIL-2 followed. The survival time for animals treated with OK-432 combined with rIL-2 was significantly prolonged. Three of the 8 C3H/He mice and one of the 8 BALB/C mice in this group survived more than 150 days without forming ascites. However, the group treated by rIL-2 alone did not survive for more than 40 days. The group treated by OK-432 alone as well as the untreated group did not survive for more than 20 days. Ascitic fluid disappeared clinically in two of four cases and decreased in the rest. Ascitic cancer cells disappeared in one case and decreased in three cases. The serum CA125 level declined significantly in all cases. The surface markers of ascitic lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry on day 8. The CD4+ subset accounted for 70-90% whereas the CD8+ subset accounted for only 7-17%. In three cases in which two color analysis was performed, the CD4+, CD29+ helper inducer T cell was dominant. We could conclude that LAK cells were not the main effector cells.