[Clinical efficacy of intravesical BCG treatment for superficial bladder neoplasms with respect to the iduced immune response]. / Efficacia clinica del trattamento intravescicale con BCG per neoplasie vescicali superficiali in rapporto alla risposta immunitaria indotta.

We evaluated the immune response after BCG treatment in superficial bladder cancer analyzing the modifications induced on lymphocytic sub-populations. In 21 patients with superficial bladder cancer we performed TURB and after 12 days began the induction cycle of 6 weeks with Pasteur BCG (75 mg/50 micromilligrams), followed by one instillation monthly for one year. Before treatment every patients underwent Mantoux intradermoreaction, blood-count and determination of peripheral blood lymphocytic subpopulations. Blood-count and lymphocytic subpopulations were repeated after 1 week, after 6 weeks, after 3 months and after 1 year. During cystoscopy after 3 months every patients underwent vesical biopsy. CD4+ and CD8+ are mainly interested among lymphocytic subpopulations at the beginning: BCG decreased CD4+ value in the patients with complete response and then it increased CD4+ and reversed the ratio between CD4+ and CD8+ on vesical mucosa.