Federal Food Safety Update

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PATIENTS with positive cervical smears, but no clinical evidence of invasive cancer, elected to be sensitized to DNCB and subsequently have DNCB applied to the cervix. Twentyfive patients did not become sensitized to DNCB. Of the remaining 155 patients, the smear test remained positive in 105, but became negative in 50. Fourteen of the 50 patients were subsequently operated on and no histological evidence of malignancy was found. The remaining 36 patients were followed up and 4 of these have developed recurrent positive smears. The average duration of follow-up is 38 months (range 5-80 months). As this treatment is successful in only 32% of patients, it is not recommended in the routine management of patients with positive cervical smears. The use of the delayed hypersensitivity response as a form of immunotherapy for patients with skin cancer has been known for some years (Klein, 1968). The successful application of this method to the treatment of non-clinical carcinoma of the vagina has already been described by us (Guthrie & Way, 1975). Patients with non-clinical carcinoma of the cervix are much more frequent and we have been investigating the use of this method of treatment in these patients. The basic principle is to sensitize the patient to Accepted 20 December 1978