Rapid restoration of natural killer activity following treatment with 2‐chlorodeoxyadenosine in 22 patients with hairy‐cell leukemia

摘要: We report on the T‐cell profile and natural killer (NK) function in 22 hairy cell leukemia patients before and 2 and 6 months after a single 7‐day course of 2‐CdA therapy at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg daily continuous infusion. Before treatment, two groups of patients were identified in respect to NK activity, the first (12/22) had a normal number of T and NK cells and a normal NK activity, the second (10/22) showed a severe reduction of CD3 +, CD4 +, CD16 +, and CD56+ cells, together with impaired NK activity. All patients had increased serum levels of the soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL‐2R). Along with a high complete remission rate (77%), treatment with 2‐CdA produced a significant reduction (p = 0.001) of total lymphocytes (from 1.59 × 109/1 to 0.72 × 109/1), and particularly of CD4+ cells (from 0.68 × 109/1 to 0.23 × 109/1), while CD8+, CD16+ and CD56+ cells were less affected. Despite the dramatic reduction of …