Levamisole versus placebo as an adjunct to primary therapy of laryngopharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma. Evaluation of the immune status.

Twenty-four patients, with a biopsy-proven laryngeal or hypopharyngeal carcinoma, received as an adjunct to their primary treatment (surgery and/or radiotherapy), levamisole (150 mg daily during three consecutive days, every fortnight) or placebo, following a single-blind, but randomized method. At the end of the follow-up, an investigation of the immune status was done, and compared with that of a healthy control-group. It is concluded that the immunity is disturbed in patients with laryngo-pharyngeal cancer, but that this disturbance does not clearly correlate with the clinical state of the disease. Also, the immunological measures did not appear relevant to the significantly favourable effect of levamisole on the prognosis.