Immunologic responses in patients with pulmonary carcinoma receiving immunotherapy

Summary This is a preliminary report on immune responses observed in vivo and in vitro in resectable patients treated with oral BCG, and in nonresectable patients treated with autologous tumour cells complexed with PPD and with BCG applied by scarification. In some cases, to shorten the period of sensitization, transfer factor was given additionally. Several of the in vitro methods used for assessing the immune competence of the patients are shown to be sufficiently informative to warrant their use before immunotherapy in order to assess the immunologic resources of the patient. During immunotherapy, they allow monitoring the effect of the treatment.