Adjuvant immunotherapy with BCG in stage II malignant melanoma

Forty-one patients were treated with BCG immunotherapy following block dissection of lymph nodes involved with malignant melanoma. A control group of similar patients who received no immunotherapy was drawn from a population consisting of all patients with malignant melanoma diagnosed in Western Australia in the period from January 1, 1975 to December 31, 1976. The disease-free survival and overall survival of BCG-treated patients were not different from that of the control group, who received no immunotherapy. The findings do not support the use of this type of immunotherapy as an adjuvant to surgery in the treatment of patients with stage II malignant melanoma.