Premium
A multiphase immunotherapy regimen for human melanoma: Clinical and laboratory results
Author(s) -
Levy Nelson L.,
Seigler H. F.,
Shingleton W. W.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197410)34:8+<1548::aid-cncr2820340829>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - medicine , regimen , immunotherapy , melanoma , oncology , medical physics , intensive care medicine , cancer , cancer research
An immunotherapy program consisting of three different types of immunologic manipulations has been administered to 240 melanoma patients since 1970. All of these patients had previously had surgical resection of their tumor and subsequently had developed recurrent lesions prior to entering our study. We considered in this report only those patients treated prior to 1973, so that all statistics might reflect at least 1 year of postimmunotherapy followup. Out of 111 patients, 32% remain alive and free of detectible disease. If we considered only those patients who entered the study with recurrent lesions confined to the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and lymph nodes, considerably better results were obtained. Out of 53 such patients, 35, or 66%, remain alive and free of tumor. None of the 58 patients with metastases to viscera, bones, or brain has been rendered tumor‐free. An in vitro assay for lymphocyte‐mediated cytotoxicity is described. This assay was used to examine two aspects of our program. Results revealed that lymphocytes from melanoma patients who have had intralesional BCG inoculation were cytotoxic only to cells that bore the melanoma‐associated tumor antigen(s). Our studies also showed that in vitro incubation of melanoma patients' leukocytes with melanoma cells did not augment, and, in fact, decreased, the antimelanoma cytotoxic activity of these leukocytes.