Immune surveillance on postoperative patients with advanced gastric cancer treated with concurrent chemotherapy and dendritic cells vaccine / 中华消化杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate clinical outcome in postoperative patients with advanced gastric cancer treated with concurrent chemotherapy and dendritic cells (DCs) vaccine as well as alteration of immune function. Methods Sixty-four postoperative patients with advance gastric cancer were divided into control group and DC vaccine group, In control group, 38 patients were treated with LCH regimen consisted of 5-fluorouracil 0.75 g/d_(1-5) and oxaliplatin 0.2 g/d_1. In DC vaccine group,blood sample was obtained from 26 patients who were followed by LCH regimen treatment next day.One week after the chemotherapy, patients were immunized with DC vaccine for 2 times at interval of one week. The second cycle was performed after 28 days. The percentages of T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells and cytokine levels before and after treatment were compared between two groups. The therapeutic effects (including no remote metastasis and enlarged lymph nodes in cavity and/or tumor reduced in volume) were also evaluated. Results The concentrations of T lymphocytes (CD3~+ and CD4~+ ), NK cells, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-12 and interferon-γ in DC vaccine group were significantly increased after vaccination compared with those before vaccination (P＜0.05), and even higher than those in control group (P＜0.05). The effective rate was higher in DC vaccine group (80. 76%) than that in control group (68.42%) with significant difference (P＜0. 05). The side effects of chemotherapy such as the decreased peripheral white blood ceils and immune cells were less serious in DC vaccine group compared with control group (P＜ 0.05), while the uncomfortable incidence of gastrointestinal tract and peripheral neuritis showed no significant difference between two groups (P＞0.05). Conclusions Application of concurrent chemotherapy and DC vaccine in patients with advanced gastric cancer after surgical treatment may achieve a short-term efficacy, meanwhile it can reduce the side effects induced by chemotherapy.