Imunovir in the treatment of immunodepression of diverse etiology.

Abstract

Immunodepression associated with a variety of situations such as cancer or any of its major modalities of treatment (surgery, irradiation, or chemotherapy) has been effectively alleviated with Imunovir (inosine pranobex-BAN), and this has been associated with demonstrable clinical benefit to these patients. One hundred and six immunodepressed patients with solid tumors undergoing radiotherapy were treated with either Imunovir or placebo; 64% of Imunovir-treated patients were immunorestored after 3 months compared to 23% in the placebo group. Imunovir was also effectively used in 75 patients with malignant hematological disorders both as an immunorestorative agent given prophylactically to prevent infection and as a therapeutic agent to treat infections in these immunodepressed patients. In different studies involving surgical patients treated with either Imunovir or placebo, 70-81% of hypoergic or anergic patients in the Imunovir group became normoergic by day 14 of treatment compared to 5-17% of the placebo group, and this enhanced immunorestoration was associated with lower incidence of local sepsis (P less than 0.05), systemic sepsis (P less than 0.025), and postoperative mortality (P less than 0.05).