Immunological investigation and immunotherapy approaches in cancer patients.

: The Authors report the preliminary results of a two-step far-reaching investigation carried out on cancer patients to study: 1) the immune conditions of the patients and establish, by a thorough immune monitoring, employing tests of humoral immunity (tetanus toxoid response), of delayed immunity (BCG test, PHA-lymphocyte blastogenesis, MIF release, skin window) and macrophage immunity (skin window), the chemotherapy effects on the immune conditions and the most suitable time to carry out immunotherapy; 2) the immunotherapeutic results which can be obtained with three different immunogens (BCG, C. parvum and ribonucleotides). The results obtained in the first part of the investigations pointed out the usefulness of the tests adopted to follow up the evolution of the immunological reactivity in patients submitted to chemotherapy, while the results of the immunotherapeutic trial show a preliminary character and, at present, do not allow definitive conclusions. Carefully planned and randomized studies are at present under way to establish, more thoroughly, the optimal modalities and the real possibilities of the immunotherapy performed with C. parvum and ribonucleotides in cancer patients.