Adoptive immunotherapy and radiotherapy in the treatment of urinary bladder cancer

Thirty-one patients with invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder were treated either by infusion of tumour immune pig mesenteric lymph node cells into the tumour blood supply, followed 6 weeks later by 5500 rad, or by radiotherapy alone. The patients were paired prior to treatment, using 4 criteria: age (nearest decade), sex, clinical stage (T3 or T4) and histological grade (average or high). The first patient in each pair then received combined treatment and the second radiotherapy alone. Administration of pig cells before radiotherapy offered no advantage to the patient in terms of the incidence of remission or the length of survival after treatment.