[Levels of certain immunologic parameters in patients with carcinoma of the epipharynx]

According to several histological and immunological features undifferentiated carcinoma of the nasopharynx (UCNT) is different from other ORL carcinomas (abundant lymphocytic infiltrate and frequent positive serology to EBV). Thus, immunological and virusological investigations were frequently performed in order to determine their diagnostic and prognostic significance. This study mainly concerned EBV serology and related immunological parameters. There are less data about immunological profile in those patients. In the present study, several standard immunological parameters were tested (number of different rosette-forming cells in peripheral blood, immunoglobulins serum levels and blastic transformation in the presence of PHA) in 17 patients with UCNT, 16 males and 1 female, aged 20 to 79 years. The aim of this study was to find out whether these patients were different from healthy controls, and if any of these parameters could be of prognostic value. Results point to the following disturbances in our group of patients: absolute lymphopenia caused by T-lymphopenia and significant decrease in ability of blastic transformation. Contrary to the registered suppression of cellular immunity there was a certain degree of stimulation of humoral response detected by hypergamaglobulinaemia and appearance of monoclonal immunoglobulin components in sera of few patients. All these immunological disturbances have no prognostic value in predicting the treatment response to chemotherapy.