Scientific and Ethical Discipline in Clinical Trials on Acute Leukemia G. MATHE Institut de Cancerologie ct d'Immunogenetique "', Hi'ipital Paul-Brousse .","" Villejuif/France Clinical research is still in an evolutionary stage. Although scientific technology was readily accepted and applied, scientific methodology has been accepted much more slowly and is very rarely properly applied. There are three reasons why this is so. First, medical ethics frequently limits the applicability of clinical research, for doctors have to be more than scientists. They must also remain moral philosophers, as...

G. MATHE and R. K. OLDHAM' Institut de Cancerologie et d'Immunogem tique, Hopital Paul Brousse, Villejuif Since the last war, cancer chemotherapy has been the object of very intensive and expensive research. Nevertheless, its development has been very slow, and its ultimate potential is today somewhat in doubt. In doubt because it does not cure any cancer patients except a) females carrying placental choriocarcinoma, a semi-allogenic tumor, in which case, cure may be in- fluenced by immune rejection, and b) children suffering from Burkitt's tumor, where the probable reason for the cure is...

I would like to thank all my co-workers who have collaborated with me, from 1963 until now, in biological and clinical research in the field of cancer active immunotherapy, of its immuno- prevention and immunorestoration. They will often be quoted in this book. I am particularly grateful to those who have helped me to write it by reviewing some chapters: D. BELPOMME, J. F. DOR, IRENE FLORENTIN, A. GOUTNER, I. J. Hm, R. HUCHET and MARIE-CHRISTINE SIMMLER. I also thank NICOLE VRIZ, MARIE-CLAUDE SCHNEIDER, FENELLARIsELEY and M. JUVET for their willing and efficient co-operation in the...

Fresh living Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BeG), injected i.v. into (C57BI/ 6xDBA/2)FI mice, activated peritoneal macrophages rendering them highly cytotoxic for tumor cells in vitro. This cytotoxic activity w s already maximal 14 days after injection of 1 mg of BCG and remained stable when 3 or 5 mg of BCG were given. At the same time spleen cells of the BCG-treat d mice showed strongly depressed responses to the T-cell mitogens, PHA and Con A, irrespective of the dose of BCG injected. The inhibitory effect was shown to be mediated by suppressor cells which had characteristics of macrophages...

CNRS International Colloquium, Held in Paris on June 22-24, 1977

We have studied 24 cases of secondarily leukemic (stage V) lymphosarcoma (LS), 31 cases of "d'emblee" leukemic LS, and ten cases of lymphoid leukemic neoplasias transitional between "d'emblee" leukemic LS and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (eLL). These cases only concern the common types ofthe WHO classification ofLS, i.e., the prolymphocytic, the lymphoblastic, and the immunoblastic. Some cases have also been classified by cell surface markers. The secondarily leukemic conversion occurred in 40% of the lymphoblastic types, in 14% of the prolymphocytic types, and in 17% of the immunoblastic...

P. Denoix and G. Mathe Approximately 70% of cancer patients relapse after surgery before the 5th year and, in most cases, for example in breast carcinoma, they relapse still later up to the 20th year. For some considerable time, the strategy of cancer treatment has been limited to the sophistication of surgery-radiotherapy combinations that maximally decreased the incidence of local and regional relapses in sites that were within their reach. Today, the practice of clinical oncology is unthinkable without the active participation of the medical oncologist. He is the "third man" of the...

A prospective randomized clinical trial of treatment with vincristine, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil after conventional curative treatment for stage II breast cancer is described. The results at 2 years are recorded together with details of toxicity. Future plans are discussed briefly. Acknowledgement We wish to acknowledge the participation of all the collaborators in this study, the co-ordinator Dr. ERICA MANSBACHER and the support of Action Cancer in Belfast. References 1. Ahmann, D. L. , O'Connell, M. J. , Hahn, R. G. , Bisel, H. F. , Lee, R. A. , Edmonson, J. H. : An...

Local treatment cures about 30 to 40% of cancers, this proportion depending on the follow-up required to establish it. This means that 60 to 70% of the malignant neoplasias are disseminated either perceptibly (leukemias, visible metas- tases) or imperceptibly, forming a 'minimal imperceptible disease', which local treatment leaves, whether it consists of surgery, radiotherapy, or surgery plus radiotherapy. When the neoplastic tissue is voluminous enough to be per- ceptible, cures can be obtained with chemotherapy or chemo- immunotherapy. When the neoplastic disease is imperceptible, made up...