Effect of vitamin B complex on the immunodeficiency produced by surgery of gastric cancer patients.

We studied the effect of vitamin B complex (vitamin B1, B6 and B12 complex) on the immune responsiveness in gastric cancer patients who underwent surgery. The depression of blastogenic responses to both PHA and PWM was observed 2 weeks after surgery in half of the patients treated with Vitamedin but the degree was significantly less than that in the control patients without vitamin B treatment whose lymphocyte responses were depressed. Moreover, the blastogenic responses were induced by vitamin B administration 2 or 4 weeks after surgery in 5 of the 8 stage III-IV patients whose lymphocytes had not responded prior to surgery. Four weeks after surgery, the patients without vitamin B treatment showed only a tendency of recovery of their lymphocyte responses, whereas the recovery of blastogenic responses in the patients treated with vitamin B was significant. Essentially similar results were obtained with skin reactions to PHA and PPD. These results suggest that the administration of vitamin B1, B6 and B12 complex is useful for the protection against and the recovery of immune dysfunction produced by surgery in cancer patients.