Interleukin 2 Receptor Expression in Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Carcinoma: Effects of Thymosin α1 In Vitro

• Altered cellular immunity in patients with advanced head and neck cancer includes impairments in lymphokine production, blastogenesis, in vitro cytotoxicity, and T-cell levels. Recent evidence for the potential importance of in vivo cytotoxicity mediated by the lymphokine interleukin 2 (IL-2) in patients with cancer prompted a study of the kinetics of IL-2 receptor expression on lymphocytes from patients with untreated advanced head and neck cancer and normal subjects and an evaluation of the in vitro effects of the T-cell immune-reconstituting peptide, thymosin α 1 . Concanavalin A—stimulated IL-2 receptor expression was maximal after 72 hours and was higher in normal subjects than in patients. This was due to lower levels of helper/inducer (CD4) cells