[Humoral and cellular immune response to cryosurgery of benign and malignant lesions of the oral cavity].

The authors have evaluated general immunocompetence after cryosurgical treatment of 11 patients affected by benign oral lesions and of 17 patients affected by oral squamous carcinoma. Serum immunoglobulin levels, C3-C4, peripheral lymphocytes, E-rosette forming cells, lymphocyte response to PHA were analyzed before a single cryotreatment and 7 and 14 days after. In the patients affected by benign lesions the observed variations seem to suggest that in these cases cryosurgery has a merely mechanical action of extirpation of the lesion and the consequent extinction of the phenomena reactive to the same lesion. In cancer patients, cryosurgery modifies numerous immunological parameters mostly concerning the cell-mediate components.