Chemoimmunotherapy for canine lymphosarcoma: a prospective evaluation of specific and nonspecific immunomodulation.

Fifty-six dogs were given chemoimmunotherapy for spontaneous lymphosarcoma. The dogs had been given identical combination chemotherapy (8 weeks) for induction of remission, and after achieving complete clinical remission, they were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups to evaluate immunotherapy as a method ancillary to chemotherapy to maintain or extend the remission. For immunostimulation, one-third of the dogs were given chemically modified autochthonous tumor cell extract in Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA), one-third were given nonmodified tumor cell extract in FCA, and one-third were given FCA alone. A historical control population of dogs given the same chemotherapy was used for comparison. Of the 56 dogs, 50 (89.3%) achieved initial remission, but 18 of the latter relapsed clinically during the initial 8-week-chemotherapy regimen. The remaining 32 dogs (or 57.1% of the original 56 dogs) were subsequently given immunotherapy. Duration of remission and survival time were recorded. The median remission duration and survival time for all dogs given immunotherapy following cytoreductive chemotherapy were significantly longer than the historical control population given chemotherapy alone. However, there was no significant difference in remission duration or survival among the three immunotherapy groups.