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A preliminary report on the use of transfer factor for treating stage D3 hormone-unresponsive metastatic prostate cancer

  • Published:
Biotherapy

Abstract

As conventional treatments are unsuccessful, the survival rate of stage D3 prostate cancer patients is poor. Reports have suggested the existence of humoral and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) against prostate cancer tumour-associated antigens (TAA). These observations prompted us to treat stage D3 prostate cancer patients with an in vitro produced transfer factor (TF) able to transfer, in vitro and in vivo, CMI against bladder and prostate TAA. Fifty patients entered this study and received one intramuscular injection of 2–5 units of specific TF monthly. Follow-up, ranging from 1 to 9 years, showed that complete remission was achieved in 2 patients, partial remission in 6, and no progression of metastatic disease in 14. The median survival was 126 weeks, higher than the survival rates reported in the literature for patients of the same stage.

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Abbreviations

Ag:

formalin-fixed cells used as antigens

c.equ.:

cell equivalent

CLR:

clinical response

CMI:

cell-mediated immunity

LMT:

leucocyte migration inhibition test

MI:

migration index

PL:

pooled formalin-treated leucocytes

PTC:

prostate tumour cells

TF:

transfer factor

TCCB:

transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder

TAA:

tumour associated antigens

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Immunodiagnosis and Immunotherapy Unit, 1st Division of Urology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Via P. Palagi 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy

    Giancarlo Pizza, Caterina De Vinci, Diego Cuzzocrea, Domenico Menniti, Ernesto Aiello, Paolo Maver, Giuseppe Corrado, Piero Romagnoli, Ennio Dragoni, Giuseppe LoConte & Vittorio Fornarola

  2. Pharmacy, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna

    Umberto Riolo

  3. Department of Statistics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Aldopaolo Palareti

  4. Blood Bank Service, Maggiore Hospital, Bologna

    Paolo Zucchelli

  5. Faculté de Médecine des Saints-Pères, Paris, France

    Dimitri Viza

Authors
  1. Giancarlo Pizza
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  2. Caterina De Vinci
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  3. Diego Cuzzocrea
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  4. Domenico Menniti
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  5. Ernesto Aiello
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  6. Paolo Maver
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  7. Giuseppe Corrado
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  8. Piero Romagnoli
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  9. Ennio Dragoni
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  10. Giuseppe LoConte
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  11. Umberto Riolo
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  12. Aldopaolo Palareti
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  13. Paolo Zucchelli
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  14. Vittorio Fornarola
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  15. Dimitri Viza
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Pizza, G., De Vinci, C., Cuzzocrea, D. et al. A preliminary report on the use of transfer factor for treating stage D3 hormone-unresponsive metastatic prostate cancer. Biotherapy 9, 123–132 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02628669

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02628669

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