Immunological studies in melanoma patients treated with BCG.

Using the lymphocyte microcytotoxicity test on melanoma cultures, 62 out of 112 patients appeared to have cytotoxic lymphocytes. Although not systematically tested, cross-reactivity of cytotoxic lymphocytes on glioma and hypernephroma cultures was found in a few instances. Some healthy individuals who regularly provided the control lymphocytes occasionally showed lymphocyte cytotoxicity, which implies that probably only regular positive findings are of any significance in patients. Although BCG scarifications had been shown in earlier clinical experiments to cause some regression of the tumour volume of pulmonary metastases of short duration in a few patients, no significant “favourable” changes were noticed in the laboratory findings in 10 patients treated by 8 weekly BCG scarifications.