1994 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 35-39,6
We evaluated the effect of immunotherapy using OK-432 in 67 gastric cancer patients with peritonitis carcinomatosis and investigated markers predicting the response to immunotherapy. All patients were followed up until death. The study enrolled 67 patients with biopsy-proved adenocarcinoma of the stomach associated with peritonitis carcinomatosis, of whom 56 underwent operation and 29 underwent gastrectomy. Seven were inoperative and 4 had recurrence with ascites due to peritonitis carcinomatosis. They were randomly assigned to receive chemotherapy with or without a streptococcal biological response modifier, OK-432.
Overall survival was not improved by OK-432. However, among the patients with a negative SUPS skin reaction before treatment, those who received OK-432 had a significantly better outcome than those without OK-432. Cox multivariate regression analysis indicated that postoperative therapy with or without OK-432 was a significant prognostic factor for patients receiving chemotherapy and immunochemotherapy who had a positive and negative SU-PS skin reaction, respectively.
These results indicate that the pretreatment SUPS skin reaction is a possible predictor of the effectiveness of immunotherapy using OK-432.
