Active specific immunotherapy potential for the treatment of large bowel cancer

Active specific immunotherapy, harnessing the strength and specificity of the host immune response to destroy neoplastic cells, may offer an ideal surgical adjuvant treatment modality for human colon cancer. Unfortunately, achievement of this goal has been obscured by 1) the effect of excess residual disease to interfere with the host's destructive response, 2) the weak nature of tumor resistance, 3) the potential adverse effect of concomitant treatments such as chemotherapy, and 4) the present limitation of poorly defined immunogens to induce, as well as insensitive assay systems to detect, host sensitization. Recent immunologic and chemical research revealing distinctive surface membrane structures on colon cancer cells suggests that a controlled trial of irradiated, autochthonous cell vaccines (without mycobacterial adjuvants) may provide a new therapeutic tool for Dukes B2 and C stages of human colon cancer.