Immunotherapy, Advanced Cancer, and Hyposplenism

Excerpt

To the editor: Is immunotherapy (1) more effective in splenectomized patients? I report the case of a patient with advanced carcinoma of the pancreas, who had been splenectomized 5.5 years earlier, treated with surgery and subsequent vaccination (2) with bacille Calmette-Guérin, with remission of tumor for more than 7 years.

A 44-year-old previously cholecystectomized woman with chronic pancreatitis underwent pancreas tail resection, Puestow procedure, and a splenectomy in 1974. Pain still continued, and when icterus developed in February 1980, subtotal pancreas resection with Whipple procedure was necessary. An advanced mucigenous cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas had widely infiltrated the wall of