Smikodub A.I., Radzievskaya L.V.
Cell Therapy Clinic of National Medical University and Embryonic Tissues Center "EmCell"

Observed was a group of 20 patients aged between 35 and 81 and suffering from oncologic diseases; due to various complications of malignant tumors (carcinoma of stomach, 5 patients; carcinoma of esophagus, 1 patient; carcinoma of uterine cervix, 3 patients; nonhodgkin lymphomas, 2 patients; carcinoma of large intestine, 5 patients; carcinoma of gallbladder, 2 patients, and carcinoma of kidney, 2 patients) these patients could not start the initial antitumor therapy. These complications comprised the following disorders: anemia (60% cases), leukopenia (20% cases), thrombocytopenia (20% cases), cachexia (45% cases), intoxication syndrome (50% cases), fever (30% cases). Three patients had one complication each, and remaining 17 patients had between 2 and 4 complications each. The control group comprised 15 patients of similar age, sex, localization of the pathologic process and its complications. The objective was to provide the possibility of beginning antitumor therapy with the use of hemopoietic fetal cell suspensions (HFCS) in oncologic patients having the above complications.

Transplanted were cell suspensions produced from fetal liver, in an amount of 1.5 to 3.5 ml and having high contents of stem cells (nucleated cells, 50-300 x 106 ml; CFU-GM, 1-165.105; CFU GEMM, 2.1-9.0.105), the age of fetal cell being 8 to 12 weeks of gestation.

Assessment of transplantation effectiveness was carried out in compliance with the change of patient's general state (improvement of health, appetite, night sleep, capacity for work, gain of weight), and laboratory indices (amounts of Hb, erythrocytes, leukocytes, lymphocytes, including subpopulations of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD16. HLA-DR).

The following results were obtained: indices of Hb and erythrocytes were restored on the 5th-30th day from transplantation; leukocytes, beginning from the 3th-7th day; thrombocytes, beginning from the 10th-20th day. During the observation period (2 months), patients suffering from cachexia gained on the average about 4.5+1.2 kg of weight. Patients demonstrated improvement of the general state, decrease in weakness and sweating, improvement of physical and mental activities. No side effects were noted in the course of HFCS transplantation. Immunologic blood tests carried out in the group under investigation showed an increase in the indices that characterize the antitumor resistance of human organism.

In the final account, out of 20 patients subjected to treatment with the use of fetal cell suspensions, 16 patients (80% cases) could start specific antitumor therapy: 7 patients began polychemotherapy (PCT); 3 patients, radiotherapy; 6 patients, surgical treatment. In the control group, only 4 patients out of 15 (26%) were able to begin specific therapy.

Better endurance of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was noted in patients that had previously received fetal cell suspensions.

Application of FCS in oncologic patients at the initial stages of treatment of a tumor disease featuring a complicated progress permits to enter the treatment arrangement with subsequent destruction of the tumor.

Smikodub A.I., L.V, Radzievskaya THE NEED TO APPLY HEMOPOIETIC CELLS IN PATIENTS AT THE BEGINNING OF TREATMENT OF A CANCER DISEASE WITH COMPLICATED PROGRESS Abstracts of the 11th International Symposium Supportive Care in Cancer, Nice. Supportive Care in Cancer, 1999, vol. 7, No. 3, p. 105.