INTERFERON-GAMMA AS A MARKER FOR THE EFFECTIVE CANCER-IMMUNOTHERAPY WITH BCG-CELL WALL SKELETON

Immunotherapy with BCG-CWS (the cell wall skeleton from Bacille Calmette-Guerin) alone has been tried on the patients with various kinds of cancer, after surgical operation and/or chemotherapy. After the inoculation most of the patients revealed biological responses: skin reactions (erythema, induration and ulcer formation), physical signs, and cytokine induction in peripheral blood (G-CSF, IL-6 and IFN-gamma). Among the patients, those who revealed distinct IFN-gamma induction and/or strong skin reaction are alive in healthy state including a few cases of complete recovery. Those who showed no IFN-gamma induction, even if they had weak skin reaction, died in a short period. Most of them were in terminal stage or had had repeated chemical or radiation therapy before immunotherapy. These results suggest that nonspecific immunotherapy with BCG-CWS, if applied independently of any other therapy, will provide an extremely effective way to prevent relapse or occurrence of secondary cancer, and those who produce IFN-gamma responding BCG-CWS inoculation can be regarded as perfect candidates for cancer immunotherapy under discussion.