Adjuvant immunotherapy with levamisole in resectable lung cancer

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00199198
• Publication Date: 2004-08-29T07:38:50Z
• Authors: W.K. Amery; J. Cosemans; H.C. Gooszen; E.Lopes Cardozo; A. Louwagie; J. Stam; J. Swierenga; R.G. Vanderschueren; R.W. Veldhuizen
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 3. Good health

Levamisole (1.1–3.8 mg/kg daily) or a placebo was given in a randomized, double-blind study to 211 patients undergoing curative surgery for primary lung cancer. The treatment, in a fixed dose of one tablet (containing 50 mg or a placebo) t.i.d., was given for 3 days before the operation, and such 3-day courses were repeated every 2 weeks thereafter for 2 years. A significant reduction of the cancer mortality was observed at 18 and 21 months post surgery in the levamisole group. There was also a nonsignificant increase of the disease-free interval. In patients who had received more than 2 mg/kg (or more than 80 mg/m2) daily, the crude recurrence rates had been halved and the death rates reduced to one-third. No beneficial effect could be observed in the patients who had been given a lower dose. In the former, adequately dosed patients, the beneficial effect was more marked if the tumor had been more advanced at the time of surgery. In addition, the incidence of hematogenous secondaries was significantly reduced in the same group of patients.