Study on adjuvant immunochemotherapy with long-term OK-432 administration in colorectal cancer

The effect of OK-432 on the survival of patients with colorectal cancer who had undergone surgical resection was studied. As postoperative chemotherapeutic agents, mitomycin C and tegafur were administered. The survival time in the OK-432 group was prolonged in comparison with that in the chemotherapy-alone group (control) among patients given curative resection, but not among those not given curative resection. The effect of OK-432 was especially significant in patients with Dukes C-Stage and Dukes C rectal cancer (p less than 0.05). Moreover, OK-432 significantly inhibited the recurrence of cancer at the original lesion in patients with Dukes C cancer who had received curative resection. These results indicate that long-term administration of OK-432 is effective as a postoperative adjuvant for curatively resected colorectal cancer, especially Dukes C cancer.