title: Critical analysis of treatment of stage II and stage III melanoma patients with immunotherapy.
abstract: Over the past 8 years, 244 patients with Stage II or III melanoma have been treated by cutaneous injection of a crude acellular homogenate of allogeneic melanoma cells (V-I) or a more concentrated fraction (V-II), followed in most patients by exchanges of WBC between paired partners. Patients with Stage III disease exhibited an overall response rate of 24% and prolongation of survival compared with control data. Stage II patients also had prolonged survival and reduced rate of recurrence over historic peers' data. Breakdown of subgroup data revealed that V-II plus exchange of WBC is similar to V-I plus exchange or V-II alone. However, recent experience of LTF suggests a higher response rate than in either V-I or V-II groups, particularly when autochthonous tumor is used for cross-immunization. The most meaningful immunologic data resulted from analysis of DNCB and MIF data. Patients negative to DNCB rarely respond to immunotherapy. A positive pretreatment MIF or positive conversion following treatment correlates with response, whereas, conversion of positive to negative predicts poor clinical performance.
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D004137:Dinitrochlorobenzene / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007104:Immune Adherence Reaction; D007112:Immunity, Maternally-Acquired; D007167:Immunotherapy; D007962:Leukocytes; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D012882:Skin Tests; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D004137:Dinitrochlorobenzene; D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors