[Clinical studies on plasma exchange in advanced cancer patients with special reference to the postcentrifugal...

Plasma exchange was undertaken to remove the immunosuppressive factors in 25 advanced cancer patients who did not respond to immunochemotherapy. In the present studies, a postcentrifugal filter was tried, and the filtrated autologous plasma was replaced in 10 patients replaced by about 1000 ml in eight and by about 1600 ml in two. The improvement of subjective symptoms and reduction of tumors were observed in 15 (60%) and seven (28%) patients, respectively. It was suggested that immunosuppressive factors of a large molecular size could be selectively removed by the postcentrifugal filter.