Interferon-γ as a Marker for the Effective Cancer Immunotherapy with BCG-Cell Wall Skeleton

Abstract

Immunotherapy with BCG-CWS (the cell wall skeleton from Bacille Calmette-Guérin) alone has been tried on the patients with various kinds of cancer, after surgical operation and/or chemotherapy. After the inoculation most of the patients revealed biological responses: skin reactions (erythema, inouration and ulcer formation), physical signs, and cytokine induction in peripheral blood (G-CSF, IL-6 and IFN-γ). Among the patients, those who revealed distinct IFN-γ induction and/or strong skin reaction are alive in healthy state including a few cases of complete recovery. Those who showed no IFN-γ induction, even if they had weak skin reaction, died in a short period. Most of them were in terminal stage or had had repeated chemical or radiation therapy before immunotherapy.
These results suggest that nonspecific Immunotherapy with BCG-CWS, if applied independently of any other therapy, will provide an extremely effective way to prevent relapse or occurrence of secondary cancer, and those who produce IFN-γ responding BCG-CWS inoculation can be regarded as perfect candidates for cancer immunotherapy under discussion.