Mycobacterium bovis BCG in metastatic melanoma therapy

Abstract

Melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer, with a high mortality rate and with 96,480 new cases expected in 2019 in the USS. BRAF V600E , the most common driver mutation, is found in around 50% of melanomas, contributing to tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastatic progression. Dacarbazine (DTIC), an alkylate agent, was the first chemotherapeutic agent approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) used as a standard treatment. Since then, immunotherapies have been approved for metastatic melanoma (MM) including ipilimumab and pembrolizumab checkpoint inhibitors that help decrease the risk of progression. Moreover, Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) serves as an adjuvant therapy that induces the recruitment of natural killer NK, CD4 + , and CD8 + T cells and contributes to antitumor immunity. BCG can be administered in combination with chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic agents and can be genetically manipulated to produce recombinant BCG (rBCG) strains that express heterologous proteins or overexpress immunogenic proteins, increasing the immune response and improving patient survival. In this review, we highlight several studies utilizing rBCG immunotherapy for MM in combination with other therapeutic agents.

The non-specific and sex-differential effects of vaccines

“…In high-income countries, several studies from Europe and the USA suggest that admission to hospital for unrelated infections may be reduced by live measles vaccine and BCG vaccine but increased by non-live DTP vaccine 9,10 . Evidence from high-income countries also indicates that BCG vaccination may reduce the severity of allergy 11 , malignancy [12][13][14] , diabetes 15 and Alzheimer disease 16,17 .…”

Combination of mechanical and pharmacological methods for induction of labor in women with unfavorable cervices

“…Intratumoral immunotherapy has been used in melanoma in which the approach to skin visible tumor is simpler. BCG was used in locoregional immunotherapies and metastasis melanoma (38). Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) serves as an adjuvant therapy that induces the recruitment of natural killer NK, CD4 + , and CD8 + T cells and contributes to antitumor immunity.…”

“…BCG can be administered in combination with chemotherapeutic and immunotherapeutic agents thus increasing the immune response and improving patient survival in melanoma patients. Since early trials BCG based immunotherapy for melanoma consistently showed a trend toward improved clinical outcomes in patients treated with BCG compared with observation alone (40). Other types of immunotherapy have been trained in this type of tumor.…”

Vaccines Against Tuberculosis: Problems and Prospects (Review)

“…Attempts are being made to treat melanoma with recombinant BCG strains [ 91 ]. The most successful were BCG variants expressing interleukin-2 (rBCG-IL-2) and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (rBCG-GM-CSF).…”