Thirty-seven patients were enrolled in a randomized prospective study to compare standard surgical therapy for superficial bladder cancer to standard therapy plus bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Side effects of BCG have been tolerated well and include dysuria in 95 per cent of the patients, urinary frequency in 83 per cent, hematuria in 39 per cent, fever in 22 per cent and nausea in 22 per cent. Of 19 control patients 8 (42 per cent) had recurrent tumors in the followup period, compared to 3 of 18 patients (17 per cent) treated with BCG. One patient treated wih BCG had 2 recurrences, yielding a recurrence rate of 22 per cent in the group receiving BCG compared to 42 per cent in controls. When the incidence of recurrent tumors in matched intervals before and after entry into the protocol is compared, no change in the rate of tumor recurrence (p equals 0.726 chi-square) occurred in controls, whereas tumor recurrences were reduced significantly in the group treated with BCG (p equals 0.010 chi-square). The reduction in tumor recurrence in patients treated with BCG compared to controls is statistically significant (p equals 0.029 chi-square). Of 4 patients who presented with new bladder tumors remain free of tumor after BCG therapy, while 2 of 5 comparable control patients developed recurrent tumors. Intravesical and percutaneous BCG immunotherapy appears to decrease the rate of tumor recurrence in patients followed for 1 year.

A randomized controlled prospective evaluation of intravesical and percutaneous bacillus Calmette-Guerin immunotherapy was done in 57 patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. In addition, 9 patients at high risk for tumor recurrence were treated with bacillus Calmette-Guerin produced a self-limited cystitis and 1 complication (hydronephrosis) of immunotherapy was observed. Of the 57 randomized patients 54 were followed for 3 to 30 months. Tumor recurrence was documented in 13 of 26 controls (50 per cent) and only 6 of 28 patients (21 per cent) treated with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (p equals 0.027, chi-square). The interval free of disease was prolonged significantly with bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment (p equals 0.014, generalized Wilcoxon test). Importantly, a simple purified protein derivative skin test distinguished those patients who responded to bacillus Calmette-Guerin immunotherapy from those who did not. Only 1 of 17 treated patients (6 per cent) whose purified protein derivative test converted from negative to positive had tumor recurrence compared to 5 recurrences (38 per cent) among the 13 patients whose test remained negative or had been positive before treatment (p equals 0.022, chi-square). Bacillus Calmette-Guerin was given to 10 patients with stage B transitional cell carcinoma who were not candidates for cystectomy and 7 are free of disease. Of 5 patients with carcinoma in situ 3 remain free of tumor after bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment and 5 of 6 who had multiple recurrences after intravesical chemotherapy responded favorably to bacillus Calmette-Guerin immunotherapy.

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A tuberculin carbohydrate fraction, GAE, in sensitized animals induced a delayed type of skin reactivity and inhibited the migration of macrophages but failed to stimulate lymphocyte transformation in vitro. Tuberculin protein-containing fractions were active in each test. These results show that in vitro lymphocyte transformation is not necessarily a corollary of delayed type hypersensitivity.