Immunotherapy of malignant disease in man

At present active specific immunotherapy should only be attempted where a tumour is shown to be antigenic and immunogenic, patients are immunocompetent, large numbers of tumour cells can be stored and minimal residual disease can be achieved without heavy immunosuppression. Acute myeloblastic leukaema (AML) satisfies such criteria reasonable well and evidence is presented that treatment with BCG and irradiated allogeneic AML cells is of value in this disease. It is suggested that there is insufficient evidence at present to justify embarking on similar regimes in most of the malignant lymphomas.