水痘ワクチンによるNK活性賦活を応用したATL急性転化予防法

概要

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The treatment of Adult T cell Leukemia·Lymphoma (ATL) has not been established yet. Because the ATL cell develops resistance to any antineoplastics in a short time, when ATL goes into an acute exacerbation, the patient will become unresponsive to any treatment and the results will be miserable. Therefore, it is the best policy, at the present time, to prevent the ATL carriers (HTLV-I carrier) or ATL patients in the smoldering or chronic stage from going into acute exacerbations. Aging is a factor in decreasing the hosts' immunity, favoring development of ATL from ATL carriers. The development will further decrease the immunity, and goes into vicious circles. A good indicator of the immunity of ATL carriers or ATL patients is the activity of the natural killer cell (NK activity) . There is a possibility that the activation of the NK activity will prevent the ATL carriers or ATL patients from going into acute exacerbation. At our department, varicella vaccine has been used to activate the NK activity based on our observation that the development of herpes zoster will increase the cellular immunity. After the vaccine injection, the NK activity of ATL patients, whose NK activity is low, will be increased, together with the improvement of the condition. This may be a promising treatment policy.