Analysis of the results of treament of lung cancer patients with BCG according to the scheme of application of the bacillus.

BCG has successfuly been applied in lymphoid and in myeloid leukemia but no positive results have been demonstrated in solid tumors except malignant melanoma after intratumoral injection. The authors' approach consists in applying BCG as an only antitumor treatment, much smaller doses and in much longer intervals between them than used by other investigators. The analysis of the treatment schemes of BCG, applied to 171 lung cancer patients showed that positive responses have been obtained only in patients without peripheral dissemination of the disease and that in doses from 0.0001 mg to 0.05 mg. The results obtained depended on the frequency of BCG application: the 5 years survival rate, the mean survival period and the rate of the marked X-ray regression have been found best in patients treated once, good in patients treated in intervals longer than 30 days between the applications of the mycobacteria and worse in patients treated in intervals shorter than 20 days. A direct inverse correlation has been discovered between the mean survival period of the treated patients and the number of the applications of BCG in the first 6 months of the treatment.