Efficacy of large-volume double filtration plasmapheresis as adjunctive therapy for cancers

We have applied large-volume double filtration plasmapheresis (LV-DFPP) to patients with advanced cancers to remove immunosuppressive factors (ISFs) from the sera. LV-DFPP in which treated plasma volume was twice (5,000-6,000ml) as much as conventional volume was applied to six cancer patients to raise the efficacy of chemo immunotherapy. All patients had metastatic disease that was beyond surgical cure. In result, inhibitory effect of the cancer patients' sera on NK activity was drastically (P < 0.01) reduced from 41.2 ± 20.6% to 7.4 ± 14.1% after LV-DF PP, while that after CV-DFPP was decreased from 38.4 ± 8.9% to 24.4 ± 7.5%. Inhibitory effect of sera from patients on PHA blastogenesis of normal lymphocytes after LV-DFPP was significantly decreased more than after CV-DFPP (P < 0.05). In clinical treatment each patients performance status remarkably improved and we have experienced that the metastatic tumors of two patients drastically regressed after LV-DFPP combined with intense chemotherapy. In conclusion, it was suggested that LV-DFPP was capable of removing ISFs more effectively than CV-DFPP. Therefore, this procedure combined with chemotherapeutic agents is expected to be effective as cancer therapy.