Demonstration of cell‐mediated immunity to human neoplasms of various histological types

Abstract

Abstract Peripheral blood lymphocytes from a total of 373 tumor patients were tested by either a colony inhibition or a cytotoxicity test for cell‐mediated immunity against human neoplasms of various histological types. Lymphocytes from 51 of 59 patients studied (88%) either reduced colony numbers formed by plated autochthonous tumor cells or were cytotoxic to them, and lymphocytes from 78 of 87 patients tested (89%) had a similar effect on allogeneic tumor cells of the same histological type as those of the lymphocyte donors. Evidence indicating antigenic cross‐reactivity between tumors of the same histological type was obtained for the following seven groups of neoplasms: malignant melanomas, carcinomas of the colon, breast, testis, endometrium and ovary, and various sarcomas. Lymphocytes affecting tumor cells had no effect on normal cells from the same patient, or on cells from other types of neoplasms than the target cells under study. The degree of cell‐mediated immunity, as detectable with the techniques employed, was approximately the same in patients having active neoplastic disease as in patients who were clinically symptom‐free. Eleven of 12 patients who were tested after having been symptom‐free for more than 2 years had a lymphocyte‐mediated anti‐tumor immunity.