Regional Immunotherapy of Lung Cancer With Intrapleural B.C.G.

C. Parvum immunotherapy of transplanted rat tumours

“…Pleural tumour growth, both in solid deposits and in malignant effusions, is also restricted by intrapleurally administered BCG (Pimm and Baldwin, 1975;Pimm et al, 1976) and the present studies show that C. parvum is also effective against tumours at this site. Clinically, intrapleural BCG is of value in the post-operative treatment of Stage I lung carcinoma (McKneally et al, 1976) and experimentally restricts growth of artificial tumour deposits in the lung (Pimm, 1976). The present investigation suggests the possibility of similar clinical treatment with C .…”

Pulmonary perspective: immunology in diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer

“…All of these trials are classified as "active nonspecific immunotherapy". The most commonly tested adjuvant was BCG, which was administered by various routes (intrapleural, intratumoral, interdermal or by aerosol) [187][188][189][190]. It is difficult to compare all these trials, owing to differences in strain, viability and concentration dose, as well as to the heterogeneity of population, stage of disease or time of therapy.…”

Failure of specific active immunotherapy in lung cancer

“…When this action was mimicked using post-operative intrapleural BCG, a similar improvement in prognosis was found, though only in patients with Stage I disease (McKneally et al, 1976). Sinus hyperplasia in the draining lymph nodes (Black & Speer, 1958) and active macrophages around the primary tumour (Stewart, 1969) apparently indicate a favourable prognosis, and may suggest that the patient's immune system has recognized a tumour-specific antigen and is reacting against it.…”