[Eighteen-year experience of cancer immunotherapies--evaluation of their therapeutic benefits and future].
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic benefits of cancer immunotherapies and to predict the future of these therapies. The results of our clinical trials are as follows; (1) A group of gastric and colonic cancer patients at stages III-IV treated with BCG immunotherapy showed a significant prolongation of survival period (2) A significant prolongation of the disease-free period and the survival time were observed in the PSK-treated group in a randomized clinical trial on patients with curative surgical operation for stages III-IV colonic cancer. (3) We established clinically that intracavital administration of OK-432 is a useful therapy for patients with malignant pleuro-peritoneal effusions. We found that the reduction and disappearance of effusions were observed in more than 60% of patients with this therapy and they survived significantly longer. These results indicate that the immunotherapies may be effective to prolong survival period of advanced cancer patients with improvement of their quality of life. Furthermore, a series of our studies on the intracavital OK-432 injections for malignant ascites are useful to understand the reaction of host immune system against tumor cells.
Torisu
M
M
First Department of Surgery, Kyushu University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
Uchiyama
A
A
Goya
T
T
Iwasaki
K
K
Katano
M
M
Yamamoto
H
H
Kimura
Y
Y
D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*