Mirimostim (macrophage colony‐stimulating factor; M‐CSF) improves chemotherapy‐induced impaired natural killer cell activity, Th1/Th2 balance, and granulocyte function

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of mirimostim (macrophage colony‐stimulating factor; M‐CSF) on immunological functions after chemotherapy. The percentage of natural killer (NK) cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), NK cell activity, T‐helper cell 1/T‐helper cell 2 (Th1/Th2) ratio, and superoxide anion production by granulocytes (granulocyte function) were measured as immunological parameters before and after chemotherapy in 44 patients with primary ovarian cancer who received at least three consecutive courses of postoperative chemotherapy. Patients were observed during the first course of chemotherapy, and 39 patients who presented grade III or IV neutropenia were entered into this study and randomly allocated to an M‐CSF‐administered group (group 1; 19 patients) and a non‐M‐CSF‐administered group (group 2; 20 patients) for the second course. For the third course, a crossover trial was conducted. In the observation period, chemotherapy significantly impaired the immunological parameters. In particular, those parameters were significantly decreased at day 14 compared to the level before chemotherapy. The values of the parameters of group 1 were significantly higher than those of group 2. In the course of chemotherapy during which M‐CSF was administered, 19 of the 39 patients presented grade IV neutropenia, and received granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) between days 7 and 14. We compared the changes of those immunological parameters in the M‐CSF alone group and the M‐CSF+G‐CSF group, and found that the concomitant use of G‐CSF did not further improve the parameters. These results indicate that chemotherapy markedly impaired the immunological functions, and that the administration of M‐CSF significantly improved the impaired immunological functions.