Skip to main content
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1977 Mar;35(3):265–272. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1977.38

Immunotherapy for acute myelogenous leukaemia: a controlled clinical study 2 1/2 years after entry of the last patient.

R L Powles, J Russell, T A Lister, T Oliver, J M Whitehouse, J Malpas, B Chapuis, D Crowther, P Alexander
PMCID: PMC2025283  PMID: 322689

Abstract

One hundred and thirty-nine untreated patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) were admitted between August 1970 and December 1973 and allocated into two remission treatment regimens: one to receive chemotherapy alone and the other chemotherapy with immunotherapy. Of the patients who attained remission. 22 were in the chemotherapy group and in September 1975 2 remained alive, the median survival time being 270 days and after relapse 75 days. Twenty-eight patients received immunotherapy during remission, and 5 remained alive; the median survival time of the group being 510 days and after relapse 165 days. Ongoing acturial analysis precisely predicted early in the study the median survival of the two groups, but it took a 2-year follow-up after entry of the last patient before it became clear that there were very few long-term survivors. The increase in survival time produced by the immunotherapy is apparently made up of two components: prolongation of the first remission and length of survival after the first relapse. It must be notted that the chemotherapy for this study was devised 6 years ago and the results of the control arm (chemotherapy alone) may be poorer than those obtained in contemporary studies.

Full text

PDF
265

Selected References

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

  1. Alexander P., Hall J. G. The role of immunoblasts in host resistance and immunotherapy of primary sarcomata. Adv Cancer Res. 1970;13:1–37. doi: 10.1016/s0065-230x(08)60162-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Crowther D., Bateman C. J., Vartan C. P., Whitehouse J. M., Malpas J. S., Fairley G. H., Scott R. B. Combination chemotherapy using L-asparaginase, daunorubicin, and cytosine arabinoside in adults with acute myelogenous leukaemia. Br Med J. 1970 Nov 28;4(5734):513–517. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5734.513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Crowther D., Powles R. L., Bateman C. J., Beard M. E., Gauci C. L., Wrigley P. F., Malpas J. S., Fairley G. H., Scott R. B. Management of adult acute myelogenous leukaemia. Br Med J. 1973 Jan 20;1(5846):131–137. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5846.131. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dimitrov N. V., Andre S., Eliopoulos G., Halpern B. Effect of corynebacterium parvum on bone marrow cell cultures (38557). Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1975 Feb;148(2):440–442. doi: 10.3181/00379727-148-38557. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Freeman C. B., Harris R., Geary C. G., Leyland M. J., MaCiver J. E., Delamore I. W. Active immunotherapy used alone for maintenance of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia. Br Med J. 1973 Dec 8;4(5892):571–573. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5892.571. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gutterman J. U., Hersh E. M., Rodriguez V., McCredie K. B., Mavligit G., Reed R., Burgess M. A., Smith T., Gehan E., Bodey G. P., Sr Chemoimmunotherapy of adult acute leukaemia. Prolongation of remission in myeloblastic leukaemia with B.C.G. Lancet. 1974 Dec 14;2(7894):1405–1409. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(74)90070-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. HADDOW A., ALEXANDER P. AN IMMUNOLOGICAL METHOD OF INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF PRIMARY SARCOMAS TO LOCAL IRRADIATION WITH X RAYS. Lancet. 1964 Feb 29;1(7331):452–457. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(64)90793-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Parr I. Response of syngeneic murine lymphomata to immunotherapy in relation to the antigenicity of the tumour. Br J Cancer. 1972 Jun;26(3):174–182. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1972.24. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Peto R., Galton D. A. Letter: Chemoimmunotherapy of adult acute leukaemia. Lancet. 1975 Feb 22;1(7904):454–454. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(75)91525-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Peto R., Pike M. C. Conservatism of the approximation sigma (O-E)2-E in the logrank test for survival data or tumor incidence data. Biometrics. 1973 Sep;29(3):579–584. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Powles R. L., Balchin L. A., Smith C., Grant C. K. Some properties of cryopreserved acute leukemia cells. Cryobiology. 1973 Sep;10(4):282–289. doi: 10.1016/0011-2240(73)90044-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Powles R. L., Crowther D., Bateman C. J., Beard M. E., McElwain T. J., Russell J., Lister T. A., Whitehouse J. M., Wrigley P. F., Pike M. Immunotherapy for acute myelogenous leukaemia. Br J Cancer. 1973 Nov;28(5):365–376. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1973.162. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Powles R. L., Lister T. A., Oliver R. T., Russell J., Smith C., Kay H. E., McElwain T. J., Fairley G. H. Safe method of collecting leukaemia cells from patients with acute leukaemia for use as immunotherapy. Br Med J. 1974 Nov 16;4(5941):375–379. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5941.375. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Vogler W. R., Chan Y. K. Prolonging remission in myeloblastic leukemia by tice-strain bacillus Calmette-Guérin. Lancet. 1974 Jul 20;2(7873):128–131. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(74)91556-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Wolmark N., Levine M., Fisher B. The effect of a single and repeated administration of Corynebacterium parvum on bone marrow macrophage colony production in normal mice. J Reticuloendothel Soc. 1974 Oct;16(4):252–257. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES