Effect of BCG Immunotherapy on Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity in Bladder Cancer Patients following Surgical Treatment

Abstract

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from bladder cancer patients display in vitro cytotoxicity against established bladder tumor target cells. Following surgery and after separation of lymphocytes in non-T and T with high affinity and low affinity for sheep erythrocytes fractions, the cytotoxic activity was significantly decreased in all subsets. After BCG therapy the cytotoxic capacity was restored and the effect was equally distributed in the different subpopulations. The monocyte-enriched fraction did not show any change in the cytotoxic activity after treatment.