Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Annals of Surgery logoLink to Annals of Surgery
. 1976 May;183(5):543–549. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197605000-00011

Critical analysis of treatment of stage II and stage III melanoma patients with immunotherapy.

W R Jewell, J H Thomas, J M Sterchi, P A Morse, L J Humphrey
PMCID: PMC1344342  PMID: 776107

Abstract

Over the past 8 years, 244 patients with Stage II or III melanoma have been treated by cutaneous injection of a crude acellular homogenate of allogeneic melanoma cells (V-I) or a more concentrated fraction (V-II), followed in most patients by exchanges of WBC between paired partners. Patients with Stage III disease exhibited an overall response rate of 24% and prolongation of survival compared with control data. Stage II patients also had prolonged survival and reduced rate of recurrence over historic peers' data. Breakdown of subgroup data revealed that V-II plus exchange of WBC is similar to V-I plus exchange or V-II alone. However, recent experience of LTF suggests a higher response rate than in either V-I or V-II groups, particularly when autochthonous tumor is used for cross-immunization. The most meaningful immunologic data resulted from analysis of DNCB and MIF data. Patients negative to DNCB rarely respond to immunotherapy. A positive pretreatment MIF or positive conversion following treatment correlates with response, whereas, conversion of positive to negative predicts poor clinical performance.

Full text

PDF
543

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Burdick J. F., Wells S. A., Jr, Herberman R. B. Immunologic evaluation of patients with cancer by delayed hypersensitivity reactions. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1975 Nov;141(5):779–794. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. CUTLER S. J., EDERER F. Maximum utilization of the life table method in analyzing survival. J Chronic Dis. 1958 Dec;8(6):699–712. doi: 10.1016/0021-9681(58)90126-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Catalona W. J., Taylor P. T., Rabson A. S., Chretien P. B. A method for dinitrochlorobenzene contact sensitization. A clinicopathological study. N Engl J Med. 1972 Feb 24;286(8):399–402. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197202242860804. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Elias E. G., Elias L. L. Some immunologic characteristics of carcinoma of the colon and rectum. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1975 Nov;141(5):715–718. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gutterman J. U., Mavligit G., McBride C., Frei E., 3rd, Freireich E. J., Hersh E. M. Active immunotherapy with B.C.G. for recurrent malignant melanoma. Lancet. 1973 Jun 2;1(7814):1208–1212. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(73)90526-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Humphrey L. J., Boehm B., Jewell W. R., Boehm O. R. Immunologic response of cancer patients modified by immunization with tumor vaccine. Ann Surg. 1972 Oct;176(4):554–558. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197210000-00014. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Humphrey L. J., Lincoln P. M., Griffen W. O., Jr Immunologic response in patients with disseminated cancer. Ann Surg. 1968 Sep;168(3):374–381. doi: 10.1097/00000658-196809000-00007. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Mendes N. F., Tolnai M. E., Silveira N. P., Gilbertsen R. B., Metzgar R. S. Technical aspects of the rosette tests used to detect human complement receptor (B) and sheep erythrocyte-binding (T) lymphocytes. J Immunol. 1973 Sep;111(3):860–867. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Morton D. L., Eilber F. R., Holmes E. C., Hunt J. S., Ketcham A. S., Silverstein M. J., Sparks F. C. BCG immunotherapy of malignant melanoma: summary of a seven-year experience. Ann Surg. 1974 Oct;180(4):635–643. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197410000-00029. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nadler S. H., Moore G. E. Clinical immunologic study of malignant disease: response to tumor transplants and transfer of leukocytes. Ann Surg. 1966 Sep;164(3):482–490. doi: 10.1097/00000658-196609000-00011. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Nadler S. H., Moore G. E. Immunotherapy of malignant disease. Arch Surg. 1969 Sep;99(3):376–381. doi: 10.1001/archsurg.1969.01340150084016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pendergrast W. J., Jr, Boehm O. R., Humphrey L. J. Effect of immunotherapy on peripheral lymphocyte count. Arch Surg. 1971 Aug;103(2):184–188. doi: 10.1001/archsurg.1971.01350080100014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. SUMNER W. C., FORAKER A. G. Spontaneous regression of human melanoma: clinical and experimental studies. Cancer. 1960 Jan-Feb;13:79–81. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(196001/02)13:1<79::aid-cncr2820130115>3.0.co;2-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Seigler H. F., Shingleton W. W., Metzgar R. S., Buckley C. E., Bergoc P. M., Miller D. S., Fetter B. F., Phaup M. B. Non-specific and specific immunotherapy in patients with melanoma. Surgery. 1972 Jul;72(1):162–174. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Smith G. V., Morse P. A., Jr, Deraps G. D., Raju S., Hardy J. D. Immunotherapy of patients with cancer. Surgery. 1973 Jul;74(1):59–68. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Soborg M., Bendixen G. Human lymphocyte migration as a parameter of hypersensitivity. Acta Med Scand. 1967 Feb;181(2):247–256. doi: 10.1111/j.0954-6820.1967.tb07255.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sparks F. C., Silverstein M. J., Hunt J. S., Haskell C. M., Pilch Y. H., Morton D. L. Complications of BCG immunotherapy in patients with cancer. N Engl J Med. 1973 Oct 18;289(16):827–830. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197310182891603. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Vetto R. M., Burger D. R., Vandenbark A. A., Nolte J. Influence of serum blocking factors on cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. Am J Surg. 1975 Aug;130(2):237–243. doi: 10.1016/0002-9610(75)90377-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of Surgery are provided here courtesy of Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins

RESOURCES