A case of successful treatment for pancreatic cancer (observation from practice)

Abstract

Objective: In recent years, researchers are increasingly considering the possibility of using immunotherapeutic drugs as part of the antitumor treatment of such patients, which can potentiate the effectiveness of cytostatic therapy. Particular attention is drawn to the combination of interferon- and recombinant tumor necrosis factor-thymosin--1, which can activate an antitumor immune response, stimulate apoptosis of tumor cells, have a direct antiproliferative effect, cause destruction of neoplasm vessels, and stimulate tumor tissue necrosis.Methods: This paper presents the results of a follow-up of 24 patients with histologically confirmed pancreatic carcinoma. Some patients received combined immunotherapy as the only method of treatment, when the possibilities of standard therapy were exhausted, there were serious complications of anticancer treatment, severe concomitant pathology that did not allow the planned treatment to be carried out in full, or when the patient refused to use cytostatics. In other cases, the introduction of immunotherapeutic drugs was carried out against the background of other antitumor treatment of the 1st or 2nd line, prescribed in connection with the progression of the disease.Results: As a result of the use of a combination of interferon- and recombinant tumor necrosis factor-thymosin--1, patients noted an improvement in the tolerability of the main antitumor treatment, additional manifestations of toxicity from the use of immunodrugs were not observed. The existence of an average positive correlation (r=0.57, p=0.0004) between the level of TNF and the value of the Karnofsky index was revealed, indicating that an increase in the content of TNF is accompanied by an increase in the functional activity of patients. According to computed tomography data, in accordance with the RECIST 1.1 criteria, one patient had a partial response of the tumor to the treatment, in 9 - stabilization of the tumor process, in other cases, observation continues.Conclusions: The data presented are of a pilot nature. One of the available observations is presented in this paper as a clinical case.