Effect of treatment with the MER tubercle bacilli fraction on the survival of mice carrying mammary tumour isografts: injections of MER at the tumour site or at a distal location.

Strain BALB/c female mice bearing syngeneic implants of 2 mammary adenocarcinomata were treated with MER, x-irradiation or both. MER was administered either subcutaneously at a site contralateral to the neoplastic growth or both into such a site and directly at the tumour location. None of the treatments effected cures but many of the treated animals survived significantly longer than did the saline injected controls. There was no evidence that introduction of MER into, or directly adjacent to, a tumour is a generally more efficacious route of administration than application at only a distal site and there was, indeed, the strong contrary impression that distal treatment alone bestowed survival protection more often and to a greater extent. In no instance was there a shortening of survival time following administration of MER at a location away from the tumour implant.