Treatment of malignant ascites with allogeneic and autologous lymphokine-activated killer cells

Two cases of peritonitis carcinomatosa with gynecological cancer, which did not respond to conventional treatment, were treated by intraperitoneal adoptive immunotherapy with allogeneic or autologous lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells plus interleukin-2. In case 1, reduction of acute ascites and disappearance of malignant cells from the peritoneal fluid and decreased levels of tumor markers (CA12-5 and CA19-9) were demonstrated during the treatment. In case 2, which also received additional treatment for pleuritis carcinomatosa, reduction of ascites and pleural effusion and disappearance of malignant cells from the pleural fluid were noted. In these cases allogeneic LAK therapy was well tolerated. This therapy did not prolong the patients' lives, but the findings indicate that it had appreciable local antitumor effects on peritonitis and pleuritis carcinomatosa in these patients with gynecological cancer.