Study of the immunomodulating influence of preparation alpha/beta-defensins on chemo/radiotherapy of patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer

Abstract

The state of antitumor immunity of patients with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer during treatment (radiation and chemoradiation therapy), which additionally included α/β-defensin immunotherapy, was studied. In all three study groups, where preparation α/β-defensins was used, there was a more pronounced dose-dependent decrease in the relative number of lymphocytes in the blood than among those receiving cytostatic therapy in mono mode. Patients of group I received radiation therapy and immunotherapy, group II - chemoradiation and immunotherapy, group III - radiation therapy with immunotherapy in increased doses, VI - radiation, V - chemoradiation. Thus, in group І the decrease in the absolute number of lymphocytes was by 0.6×109/l, in group II - by 0.82×109/l, and in group III - by 0.93×109/l; by 8.51% there was a decrease in the relative number of lymphocytes in group I, by 15.52% in group II and in group III - by 14.32%. A significant decrease in the absolute number of CD3+ T cells in the blood was registered with a combination of radiation- and immunotherapy: in group I from 1141×106/l to 682×106/l and in group III - from 871×106/l to 309×106/l. At the same time, there was an increase in the relative number of natural killers in the blood of patients undergoing radiation therapy in combination with immunotherapy, also with a dose-dependent effect, the growth in group I is from 16 to 17% and group III - from 13.4 to 19.5%. Among patients undergoing cytostatic therapy, there were significant differences in the absolute number of NKT cells in the combination of radiation and immunotherapy, groups I and III, by reducing the number of these lymphocytes in the blood from 86 to 57 and from 62 to 31, respectively. α/β-defensins have been shown to have a dose-dependent adjuvant effect on cytostatic treatment – radiation, and chemoradiation of patients with cancer of the oral cavity and oropharynx. Simultaneously with the use of the drug α/β-defensins associated additional immunomodulatory effect in the form of the restructuring of the subpopulation of lymphocytes due to an increase in the relative number of natural killers in the blood.