Premium
Cell‐mediated immune reactions to human tumors
Author(s) -
Perlmann Peter,
Troye Marita,
Pape Gerd R.
Publication year - 1977
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(197707)40:1+<448::aid-cncr2820400707>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - medicine , immune system , immune reaction , cell mediated immunity , immunology , cancer research , immunity
Cell‐mediated immune reactions to tumors, as demonstrated by skin testing or different in vitro procedures, occur in a large variety of human neoplastic diseases. Studies of the cytotoxic effects of patients' blood lymphocytes constitute the most widely used in vitro test system. However, while these tests provide some evidence for the occurrence of disease‐related lymphocyte reactions in cancer patients, the results are controversial. The problems involved may be illustrated by results of an analysis of lymphocyte cytotoxicity in human urinary bladder carcinoma. Here lymphocyte cytotoxicity to tumor cells reflects very frequently the individuals' responses against a variety of antigens expressed to different degrees on tumor cells of different types. While some of these antigens probably are tumor‐associated, others are not and may give rise to immune responses in healthy individuals as well. Moreover, the response pattern varies in different individuals with the course of disease and after therapy. For this reason, disease‐related reactions may well be detected in selected groups of patients but not readily in individual cases. This presently restricts the usefulness of the assay in use as prognostic or diagnostic tool for monitoring cancer patients. That cell‐mediated cytotoxicity reflects activities of both antibody dependent and antibody independent effector cells further complicates the problem. Thus, cytolysis in vitro of allogeneic tumor cells is frequently mediated by patients' lymphocytes acting in conjunction with humoral antibodies. On the other hand, as in certain experimental tumor systems, specific antibody‐independent T cells may well be the effector cells when autochtonous tumor cells are the target cells. In these instances one would expect that other, more strictly tumor‐specific antigens are involved in the reactions than in antibody‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity. In addition, antibody‐independent effector cells that kill tumor cells in a relatively nonselective manner may also be involved. Since these different mechanisms surely differ in importance for defence against tumor growth, further elucidation of the nature of effector cells and of the specificity of the cytotoxic reactions during different phases of disease appears indicated. This is particularly important when one considers the manipulation of the patients' response against their tumors by means of immunotherapy. Cancer 40:448–457, 1977.