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Study of the tumor cell‐lymphocyte interaction in patients with breast cancer
Author(s) -
Deodhar Sharad D.,
Crile George,
Esselstyn Caldwell B.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197205)29:5<1321::aid-cncr2820290529>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - immune system , medicine , lymphocyte , breast cancer , cytotoxic t cell , nodal , lymph node , cancer , cell , pathology , immunology , cancer research , biology , in vitro , biochemistry , genetics
The role of regional axillary node lymphocytes in the immune response to tumor cells in patients with breast cancer was studied in a tissue culture system in which the interaction between the tumor cells and lymphocytes was measured in terms of clumping of lymphocytes around tumor cells, their cytotoxic effect, and the blast transformation of lymphocytes; all these parameters were considered as evidence for cellular immune response to the tumor. Of the 17 patients studied in this manner, 10 who had no nodal or other metastatic involvement showed a significant tumor cell‐lymphocyte interaction, four who had extensive involvement of the axillary nodes showed no interaction, and, of the remaining three patients, in whom only one node appeared to be involved, two had a significant response whereas one showed no interaction. In six patients with no nodal involvement, both the nodal lymphocytes and the peripheral lymphocytes were available for studying the interaction with tumor cells, and, in all of these, the former showed a greater degree of reaction than the latter. The quantitative significance of this observation is not clear at the present time.