thesis
Monocytes, Dendritic Cells, Macrophages, T cells and Head and Neck Cancer : the effect of a thymic hormone preparation in restoring defective immune functions
- Publication date
- 22 April 1998
- Publisher
- It is generally accepted that cell mediated immunity (CMI) has more importance
in the control of cancer than the antibody-mediated immune response. The cell
mediated immune response is the basis of the so-called natural host resistance
to cancer, which is also referred to as "immunosurveillance". Although the
concept of immunosurveillance has been much debated over the past decades,
there is now no doubt that suppression of the immune function increases the
incidence of a few types of cancer. Also, spontaneous regression has been
observed for some tumors, including melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and
lymphoma, and evidence for a role of immunosurveilance is well supported in
these tumors.
The role of a cell mediated immunosurveilance in patients with a head and neck
squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is less clear. Immunosuppressed patients
do not develop head and neck cancer more frequently and spontanous
regression is at most anecdotal. Despite this, defects of the CMI in HNSCC
patients have extensively been documented. One of the first tests to reflect the
status of the CMI which was found abnormal in HNSCC patients, was delayed
type hypersensitivity (dth) as measured by skin reactions to ONCB-
dinitrochlorobenzene). Ninetyfive percent of the normal adult popUlation react
with a dth reaction towards skin-applied ONCB, however such a positive
reaction is often absent in HNSCC patients. These observations have not led
to a present clinical use of ONCB s