Immunotherapy of sarcomas.

Numerous attempts have been made at immunotherapy of sarcomas in man, and in most of these, tumor cells were used as a source of antigen. The cells were given by direct immunization with an adjuvant such as BCG or in adoptive immunotherapy trials in which tumor-immunized donors were a potential source of immune cells. These series of studies have shown consistent evidence of effect on the immune response of the patients to tumor antigens but no consistent clinical effect. Nonspecific immunotherapy has been less vigorously explored, but a current trial with interferon is potentially promising. The immune response to tumor antigens is surely a complex system of checks and balances. The methods investigators have used to date may have stimulated suppressor responses as well as or more effectively than cytotoxic responses to tumor. More precise immune modulation may indeed result in an effective antitumor response in man.