Immunochemosurgery for gastric cancer.

The effects of immunochemosurgery on 73 patients with stage III gastric cancer who were treated with radical subtotal gastrectomy followed by immunochemotherapy for 18 months during the 5-year period between 1975 and 1980 were compared to the effects of therapy on 64 patients with stage III gastric cancer treated with radical subtotal gastrectomy alone during the period between 1970 and 1980. For immunotherapy, picibanil (streptococcus pyogenes preparation) was intramuscularly given weekly, and for chemotherapy, either MFC (mitomycin-C, 5-FU, and cytosine arabinoside) regimen I.V. ten times followed by oral 5-FU or FME (5-FU and methyl-CCNU) regimen was given. The percentage of survivors who received postoperative immunochemotherapy compared to that of survivors who received surgery alone differed by approximately 15%. This difference was rather constant with more than 5 years of follow-up. The 5-year survival rate in the immunochemosurgery group was 38.1%, whereas that in the surgery alone group was 24.8%, which was statistically significant (p less than 0.01). Various immune parameter studies such as 1-chloro-2, 4-dinitrobenzene (DNCB) test, T lymphocyte count and percent, PHA- and concanavalin-A-stimulated lymphoblastogenesis, and antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity showed more favorable data in the immunochemosurgery group than in the surgery alone group. The effects of early postoperative immunochemotherapy (immunotherapy from the fourth to fifth postoperative day, and chemotherapy from the eighth to tenth postoperative day) after radical gastrectomy seems to be superior to that of surgery alone for stage III gastric cancer. For stage I and II gastric cancer, radical gastrectomy and postoperative immunotherapy for 3 months would be the best treatment.