[Postoperative treatment of malignant brain tumors with ACNU and PSK-particularly immunological follow-up research].

From the recent progress in immunological study, many authors have reported immune suppression in patients with malignant brain tumors. On the other hand, many factors are considered to influence the patterns of cellular and humoral immune parameters in patients with brain tumors, pre- and post-operatively. We treated the patients with malignant brain tumors using ACNU and PSK pre- and post-operatively, and 4 year survival rate was 35.3% (N: 17) in glioblastomas. We planned this time to measure immune parameters (Ig,lymprocyte number,Lyn and T-cell, Tn) pre- and post-operatively in order to study the immune states of patients. The results were as follows: The most significant finding was the elevated serum level of IgG in longterm survival of the patients with glioblastoma and the reduced one in patients with postoperative death. No other humoral immunocompetence existed except slightly reduced IgM level in the patients with death. Contrary to many previous studies, our research has suggested that humoral immune parameters are considered to be valuable to understand postoperative immune states of patients, and administration of PSK be effective as an immunomodulator.