IMMUNOLOGICAL PROFILE OF PATIENTS WITH OVARIAN-CANCER UNDER IMMUNOSTIMULATION WITH MURINE MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES

The longer survival of ovarian cancer patients after immunostimulation has been connected with the induction of an anti-tumor activity trigg ered by cellular and humoral immune responses. Our interest was to stu dy the long-term influence on the immune system in relation to the var ious levels of the HAMA response and the disease stage. The immunologi cal profile was evaluated by regularly performing phenotyping and func tional analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). We report the s tatistical analysis of immunological data obtained in a study with 77 ovarian cancer patients examined over a period of up to 28 months. The results demonstrate that these immunological data are important for m onitoring cancer patients under immunotherapy whereas they provide no prognostic significance.