IMMUNOLOGICAL RECONSTITUTION AFTER HIGH-DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AND AUTOLOGOUS BLOOD STEM-CELL TRANSPLANTATION FOR ADVANCED OVARIAN-CANCER

We evaluated the immunological reconstitution of patients who underwen t high-dose chemotherapy and autologous blood stem cell transplantatio n (ABSCT) for advanced ovarian cancer. Sixty days after transplantatio n a complete reconstitution of lymphocytes and of the CD3, CD4, CDS, C D19, and CD16/56 subsets was observed in this series. A significant in crease in the count of interleukin-2 receptor expressing lymphocyte (C D25) was found on day +60 after transplantation compared to that obtai ned at diagnosis and before transplantation. A significantly higher ly mphokine-activated killer (LAK) precursor activity was seen on day +60 compared to the values obtained at diagnosis and before transplantati on while natural killer activity did not show any significant variatio n. We conclude that ABSCT gives prompt and complete immunohaematopoiet ic reconstitution after high-dose treatment. Moreover, our data suppor t the feasibility of interleukin-2/LAK therapy as consolidative therap y after ABSCT.