Adjuvant immunotherapy with bacillus Calmette-Guérin in prostatic cancer

Ninety-two patients with histologically proved prostatic cancer were studied. Forty-six patients were treated with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) adjuvant immunotherapy, and 46 other patients, matched for stage and hormone therapy, served as controls. Survival from the time of histologic diagnosis was sixteen and one-half months longer (thirty-seven and one-half versus twenty-one months) in the BCG-treated patients. There was no mortality and only minimal morbidity. Changes in some immunologic parameters (white blood cell count, skin tests) suggest an immune response.