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Cellular Immunity to Autologous Breast Cancer and RIII-Murine Mammary Tumor Virus Preparations¹

New York Medical College-Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, New York, New York 10029 [M. M. B., R. E. Z., B. S., H. P. L.], and Institute for Medical Research, Camden, New Jersey 08103 [A. S. D.]

Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) to autologous breast cancer tissue was measured by means of skin window (SW) and leukocyte migration tests (LMT's). Simultaneous measurements were made of the in vitro (LMT) reactivity to RIII-murine mammary tumor virus, virions and/or purified glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 55,000. Among clinically disease-free patients tested 6 to 12 months postoperatively, positive SW responses were found in 86% of Stage 0 cases, in 57% of those invasive breast cancer patients who subsequently survived without recurrence for 5 or more years, and in 26% of those invasive breast cancer patients who developed recurrence less than 4 years postoperatively. Simultaneous CMI to RIII-murine mammary tumor virus and autologous breast cancer was significantly more frequent among lymphoreticuloendothelial (LRE)-positive than among LRE-negative breast cancer patients tested 2 to 5, 6 to 12, and 13 to 39 months postoperatively. Among clinically disease-free LRE-positive patients tested 13 to 60 months postmastectomy, there was a striking correlation between migration indices to RIII-glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 55,000 and autologous breast cancer.

Our data indicate that: (a) the SW and LMT procedures could provide objective criteria for monitoring the effects of putative immunotherapeutic procedures on prognostically significant CMI; (b) the SW and LMT data support our earlier suggestion that the presence of LRE responses in breast cancer tissue reflects prognostically significant CMI to the cancer; (c) the SW, LMT, and LRE characteristics individually and collectively demonstrate that preinvasive (Stage 0 in situ) breast cancers are commonly, if not universally, immunogenic; and (d) induced CMI to shared CMI determinants of Stage 0 in situ cancers might exert a retarding influence on subsequently developing breast cancer.

¹ This research was supported by Contracts NO1-CP-3-3398 and NO1-CP-53561 within the Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Pathology, New York Medical College-Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals, 1249 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10029.

Received 9/ 1/77. Accepted 3/28/78.