J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 90(9): 1432-1435, 1989

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Report on the annual meeting

IMMUNOTHERAPY FOR LUNG CANCER BY STREPTOCOCCAL PREPARATION OK-432

To evaluate the clinical eflicacy of OK-432 immunotherapy, patients admitted between 1975 and 1982 were randomized into two groups : An immunochemotherapy (IM-C) group and a chemotherapy (control) group. For each group, a fixed chemotheapy was administered using a combinatin of three drugs. The survival rates of cases with non-small cell carcinoma were evaluated at the end of 1987. One nundred and fifoy-seven cases in the IM-C group and 148 in the control group were eligible for evaluation of long-term survival rates. Statistically significant improvement of the survival rates in the IM-G group were noted in the followiing items : All cases, resected cases, non-resected cases, resected stage I + II cases, resected stage III cases, completely resected cases, incompletely resected cases, and cases with epidermoid carcinoma. However, in comparison of adenocarcinoma there was no significant difference between the two groups. SU-polysaccharide skin test and natural killer activity were the best immunological parameters during the OK-432 therapy.
To intensify the effects of immunotherapy, a possibility of regional immunotherapy was studied following some experimental works. Regional infusion of LAK cells (induced by incubation of patient’s lymphocytes with rlL-2) through bronchial artery after regional infusion of OK-432 and chemotherapeutics showed favorable effect for advanced lung cancer. Future prospect of these regional adoptive immunotherapy was discussed.

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