Natural killer cell activity in Hodgkin's disease patients undergoing radiation therapy or chemotherapy and radiation...

Natural killer (NK) cell activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from patients with Hodgkin's disease was studied using 4 h 51Cr release assay and K562 cells as sensitive targets. PBMCs were obtained from 15 previously untreated patients at different stages of their disease. PBMCs were also obtained from 46 patients treated by radiation therapy or combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Twenty healthy age-matched volunteer donors were used as controls to the treated patients. For these normal donors the mean cytotoxicity was 24.8 +/- 5.67% at a 100:1 effector-target cell ratio; and 43.7 +/- 12.1% for the treated cancer patients. Fifteen healthy age-matched volunteer donors were used as controls to the untreated patients. The mean cytotoxicity for these normal donors was 20.8 +/- 3.61% at a 100:1 effector-target cell ratio; and 37.6 +/- 6.65% for the previously untreated cancer patients. The mean cytotoxicity for all 35 normal donors was 23.1 +/- 5.22% at a 100:1 effector-target cell ratio. Most treated patients (93.5%) had a complete response to therapy and a significant difference was found between the mean cytotoxicity of the whole group (46 treated patients), compared with controls (P < 0.001). A significant difference (P < 0.05) was also observed when the same 11 patients were studied before and after treatment.