Immunotherapy of Metastases Enhances Subsequent Chemotherapy

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 217; no. 4557; pp. 367 - 369
• Main Authors: Hanna, Michael G., Key, Marc E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 23-07-1982; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Anatomy; Animals; Antigens, Neoplasm - administration & dosage; Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; Antipsychotic agents; BCG Vaccine - therapeutic use; Cancer; Cancer metastasis; Cancer research; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular - therapy; Carmustine - administration & dosage; Chemotherapy; Cyclophosphamide - administration & dosage; Guinea Pigs; Immunotherapy; Intravenous injections; Liver Neoplasms; Lung Neoplasms - secondary; Lung Neoplasms - therapy; Macrophages; Metastasis; Neoplasm Metastasis - drug therapy; Neoplasm Metastasis - therapy; Neoplasms, Experimental - therapy; Nodules; Promastigotes; Tumors; Vaccination
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.6283635

In many multimodal therapies of cancer, postsurgical chemotherapy is administered before immunotherapy for treatment of micrometastatic disease. This sequence may not be the most efficacious. Experiments in which strain 2 guinea pigs bearing syngeneic L10 hepatocarcinomas were given immunotherapy showed that infiltrating immune effector cells not only were tumoricidal but disrupted the characteristically compact structure of metastatic foci. When cytotoxic drugs were administered at the peak of this inflammatory response, the survival rate of the guinea pigs increased significantly. We conclude that postsurgical immunotherapy can enhance the effect of cytotoxic drugs administered subsequently.