A trial of adjuvant combination chemoimmunotherapy for stage III carcinoma of stomach

A chemoimmunotherapy program designed on the basis of experimental results was administered to 27 patients with stage III carcinoma of stomach following curative resection. The treatment regimen consisted of active immunotherapy with Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase (VCN)-treated autologous tumor cells admixed with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and chemotherapy with drugs such as cyclophosphamide (CY), mitomycin C (MMC), and 5-fluorouracil (FU) which proved to enhance the immune response when administered at optimal dose and timing. Then, it was followed by long-term administration of tegafur (FT) and immunomodulators. This treatment significantly improved survival when compared to that of 41 historical control patients treated with surgery alone (P less than 0.001). As compared to 31 control patients concurrently treated with a bolus dose of MMC followed by long-term FT and immunomodulators, survival had a tendency, but not significantly, to be improved in patients treated with this therapy (P less than 0.1). However, the survival rate at 4.5 years was significantly higher than that of control patients (P less than 0.01). These results appeared to show that this type of adjuvant combination chemoimmunotherapy may be of benefit for this group of patients with gastric carcinoma.