Evaluation of lymphocytic responses after treatment with bacillus Calmette-Guerin and interferon-alpha 2b for superficial bladder cancer

Bladder wash-derived lymphocytes from superficial bladder cancer patients i nvolved in high dose BCG, low dose BCG, and low dose BCG with IFN-alpha: tr eatments were examined We found an increasing trend in the percentage of CD 3 T cells with each weekly intravesical instillation and the proportion of CD3 T cells expressing the gamma delta T cell receptor was significantly hi gher in patients receiving standard dose BCG than those receiving low dose BCG or low dose BCG plus IFN-alpha. Most patients had a predominance of CD4 T cells, while some had more CDS T cells. The CD4/CD8 ratio did not vary m uch during the instillations. Surprisingly, both patients and normal contro l individuals had high percentages of CD69- and CD45RO-positive lymphocytes in the bladder wash and this was not reflected in lymphocytes from periphe ral blood collected in parallel. We found no differences in lymphocyte phen otypes, cytokine production, and clinical outcome in the patients fi om thr ee arms. This may reflect that the qualitative and quantitative immune resp onses elicited from the three treatments are similar. However, the lymphoki ne-activated killing ability of peripheral blood lymphocytes against alloge neic cell-lines from the cancer patients was depressed compared to normal i ndividuals and the cytotoxicity appeared to be enhanced after intravesical treatment. (C) 1999 Academic Press.