Abstract

AbstractA patient with slowly progressive, widely metastatic carcinoma of the breast was treated with BCG injected into subcutaneous tumor nodules. Biopsies of nodules treated with BCG showed an intense inflammatory reaction and a marked decrease in tumor cells. Biopsies of uninjected tumor nodules showed numerous tumor cells and absence of an inflammatory reaction. All injected nodules involuted within two months after injection with BCG. However, no uninjected lesions involuted and the patient showed no objective general clinical improvement. Four months after the administration of BCG, she had increased numbers of subcutaneous nodules and an enlarged cervical node. Although BCG immunotherapy has been effective with various neoplasms of animals and man, it was clinically ineffective in this patient.