Treatment of renal cancer patients by transcatheter embolization and its effects on lymphocyte proliferative responses.

The effects of transcatheter embolization on lymphocyte proliferation in patients with renal cancer were investigated. Prognosis was good in 12 patients who underwent preoperative transcatheter embolization and 2 of 5 patients with distant metastases survived for 2 years or more. The remaining 9 patients underwent transcatheter embolization as a conservative procedure and 4 of 7 with distant metastases survived more than 1 year. Lymphocyte response to phytohemagglutinin before treatment in the presence of autologous or homologous serum was significantly lower in all patients than in healthy persons (p less than 0.01 and less than 0.05, respectively). The response after transcatheter embolization decreased slightly only in the presence of autologous serum for a short interval but recovered to the pre-treatment level 1 month after embolization. However, only in the presence of autologous serum was the response significantly higher at 2 months after nephrectomy than before treatment in patients who underwent preoperative transcatheter embolization (p less than 0.05). The serum inhibitory factor levels changed in inverse proportion to the post-treatment lymphocyte response. In patients who underwent preoperative transcatheter embolization the serum inhibitory factors essentially disappeared 2 months after nephrectomy.