[Lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and interleukin-2 (IL-2) therapy that improved lymphadenopathy in a patient with B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].

A 70-year-old man was admitted to our hospital on March 9, 1989 because of fever, superficial generalized lymphadenopathy, upper abdominal mass and right pleural effusion. The diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (follicular medium sized cell type, B cell) was made by a biopsy of the neck lymph node. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained from the patient by cytopheresis. The cells were cultured for 8 days with interleukin-2 (IL-2) to generate Lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells. The patient received a total of 7.7 x 10(9) LAK cells intravenously over a period of 3 weeks. He also received continuous intravenous infusion of IL-2 for 17 days, starting 2 days before the first infusion of LAK cells. After this therapy, although his superficial generalized lymphadenopathy disappeared or decreased in size, the size of the upper abdominal mass did not decrease. Therefore, it is suggested that adoptive immunotherapy is a beneficial treatments for B cell lymphoma. However, LAK cells should be generated in much larger quantities for a more successful therapeutic result.