[Adoptive immunotherapy of malignant disease using LAK cells].

Adoptive immunotherapy of malignant diseases was tried using LAK cells induced from peripheral blood lymphocytes with recombinant IL-2 (TGP-3) and fresh human plasma. The cytotoxicity of autologous and mixed cultured allogeneic LAK cells reached maximum after two weeks, and after 7 to 10 days of incubation, respectively. The necessary dose of IL-2 combined with LAK cells was 1000 or 2000 units for maintenance and enhancement of LAK activity, which did not cause any lethal side effect, i.e., capillary permeability leak syndrome. A clinical effect was observed in cases of carcinomatous pleural effusion of colon cancer, pulmonary metastases from breast cancer and rhabdomyosarcoma, and pulmonary, hepatic and abdominal wall metastases from squamous cell carcinoma of the epipharynx. The only side effect observed was fever. No pathological reaction occurred after frequent injection of allogeneic LAK cells. The most important problem to be solved is how to induce a large amount of LAK cells.