Natural killer cells activity and neuroimmunological treatment of cancer.

To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Krause et al. (1). They report on the role played by activated natural killer cells in the treatment of colon and lung cancer patients. With respect to the above, we would like to inform readers of our experience with this issue. In 1987, we found that neuropharmacological therapy was able to improve different types of cancer patients (2). In addition, we showed that the clinical improvement was paralleled by an increase in the cytoxicity activity of natural killer cells against the K-562 target cells (3). This first report was confirmed by further research published in 1989 (4) and 1990 (5). All our patients were submitted to neuroautonomic and immunological investigations. Neuroautonomic research included the assessment of circulating neurotransmitters: noradrenaline, adrenaline, dopamine, platelet serotonin, and plasma serotonin. We showed that clinical severity correlated negatively with the noradrenaline/adrenaline ratio, which in our experience is associated with “uncoping stress” situation (6, 7). Conversely, clinical improvement correlated positively with the noradrenaline/adrenaline ratio. According to the above, the neuropharmacological manipulations we prescribed were addressed to enhance central noradrenergic activity (8–10). The above findings were also the subject of lectures in many cancer hospitals and departments (M. D. Anderson, Ohio State University, University of South Florida, Rosewell Hospital, Hospital de Buenos Aires, and others). Up to the present, we have treated more than 2,000 advanced cancer patients, which include many types. Prostate, gastric, mammary cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients were shown to obtain maximal improvement by our neuropharmacological therapy. Our long experience dealing with this issue has been summarized in our recently published book (11).