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. 1973 Nov;28(5):365–376. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1973.162

Immunotherapy for Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia

R L Powles, D Crowther, C J T Bateman, M E J Beard, T J McElwain, J Russell, T A Lister, J M A Whitehouse, P F M Wrigley, M Pike, P Alexander, G Hamilton Fairley
PMCID: PMC2008928  PMID: 4271320

Abstract

One hundred and seven untreated patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) were admitted to St Bartholomew's Hospital between 10 October 1970 and 31 January 1973. Before receiving drugs to induce remission they were allocated alternatively into 2 groups to decide their remission treatment—a group to receive chemotherapy alone and a group to receive the same chemotherapy with immunotherapy. The patients were then given induction chemotherapy and 45 of them attained complete remission. All patients in remission then received chemotherapy consisting of 5 days treatment every 28 days. Patients receiving immunotherapy were also given multiple weekly intradermal injections of irradiated stored AML cells and Glaxo B.C.G. using a Heaf gun. There were 19 patients in the group which received only chemotherapy during remission; 7 of these patients remain alive (median survival after attaining remission 303 days) and only 5 are still in their first remission (median remission length 188 days). Twenty-three patients were allocated to receive immunotherapy during remission in addition to chemotherapy and 16 remain alive (median 545 days) and 8 are in their first remission (median 312 days). The difference in survival of the two groups is significant with a P value of 0·003.

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Selected References

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

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