It is suggested that the reciprocal reaction of these cytokines may contribute to angiogenesis in IBD b inducing intestinal ischemia through vasoconstriction.

Clarithromycin (CAM) increased the median survival of patients with unresectable non-small-cell lung cancer who had received chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy [Chemotherapy 1997;43:288–296]. The present study was performed to ascertain whether CAM alone exhibits an antitumor effect against Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and to analyze the nature of its adjuvant effect on LLC-inoculated C57BL/6 mice. CAM at 10 mg/kg/day retarded the growth of subcutaneously inoculated LLC cells; consequently, the mean survival time of mice with LLC increased. This treatment was also effective in reducing the number of tumor nodules in the lung after intravenous inoculation with LLC cells. When tumor-bearing mice received an intravenous injection of vindesine sulfate (7 mg/kg) and cisplatin (6 mg/kg) 7 days after tumor inoculation, the chemotherapeutic effect was significantly enhanced by CAM treatment when it started 7 days after chemotherapy, but not when it started the day after chemotherapy. The delayed initiation of CAM treatment resulted in the enhancement of natural killer cell activity and CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity and increased the number of interferon-γ-producing T cells and interleukin-4-producing T cells. These findings indicate that CAM can exhibit an antitumor effect by itself and also induce the well-balanced expansion of helper T cell subsets in tumor-bearing mice recovering from the immunosuppression caused by chemotherapy. CAM may therefore be a promising adjuvant drug in anticancer chemotherapy, and treatment with this macrolide should be initiated at some interval after basic cancer therapy.

We conclude that repeated blood sampling may be desirable to detect circulating cancer cells in peripheral blood, even in patients with advanced gastric cancer; CK 19 may be superior to CK 20 in detecting these cells. The clinical significance of detecting occult cancer in peripheral blood remains to be determined.

The effects of a-carotene, p-carotene, palm carotene, and green tea polyphenols (GTP) on the progression stage of pancreatic carcinogenesis after rapid production of ductal lesions were studied in Syrian hamsters. Dose threshold inhibitory effects were noted for P-carotene, 25 ppm, and palm carotene, 40 ppm, which includes 24 ppm P-carotene reducing the numbers of putative preneoplastic lesions of duct epithelial hyperplasia and atypical hyperplasia, as well as carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinomas. GTP at doses of 500 and 5000 ppm, but not 100 ppm, also significantly decreased the numbers of hyperplasia and total duct lesions. Combined administration of 40 ppm palm carotene, and 50 ppm GTP similarly inhibited the lesion development. a-Carotene, however, did not affect pancreatic carcinogenesis. The results suggest that chemopreventive effects are exerted by p-carotene and GTP above critical doses and that combined administration of palm carotene and GTP might be a candidate chemoprevention strategy for pancreatic cancer in humans.

We have previously reported that long-term treatment with clarithromycin (CAM) increased the median survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and improved various clinical parameters in these patients. In the present study, CAM was administered to 33 patients with unresectable primary non-small cell lung cancer, who had received chemotherapy, radiotherapy or both (basic cancer therapy). Patients with clinical backgrounds matched to the CAM group, who did not receive CAM treatment, were included into this study as a control group (non-CAM group). CAM treatment was initiated 4 weeks after the basic cancer therapy. The non-CAM group did not receive a placebo. Before and after the 3-month treatment with CAM, body weight, serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6, a cytokine which, together with TNF-α, plays a crucial role in the development of cancer cachexia), total protein, albumin, cholinesterase and hemoglobin were measured for the evaluation of the patients’ clinical status. There were no statistically significant differences in serum levels of IL-6 between the CAM group before the treatment and the non-CAM group. After 3 months of CAM treatment, serum levels of IL-6 significantly decreased. In contrast, body weight, cholinesterase, and hemoglobin increased to a significant extent. Among these four parameters, however, the decrease in serum IL-6 levels was only statistically correlated with the increase in body weight, but not with that in other parameters. Furthermore, CAM-treated patients whose serum IL-6 levels were decreased after 3 months of treatment survived longer: there was a statistically significant correlation between the decrease in serum IL-6 and survival time. In contrast, in the non-CAM group, these parameters did not change significantly during the study. These results suggest that CAM may reduce the progression of cancer-associated cachexia.