J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 81(11): 1447-1460, 1980

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Original article

EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL STUDIES ON THE RELATION BETWEEN CELL-EDIATED IMMUNITY OF TUMOR-BEARING HOST AND RADIOTHERAPEUTIC EFFECT

After the tumor regressed by irradiation of 2,500 rads, tumor-bearing rats showed immunological resistance against retransplantation of the tumors. In the process of tumor regression by radiotherapy, the remarkable infiltration of mononuclear cells was observed in the tumorous tissues. Immunofluorescent antibody technique revealed that most of the infiltrated cells were T-lymphocytes. It was suggested that the splenocyte of tumor-bearing rats showed the high blastogenesis by 3M-KCl extract of the transplanted tumor simultaneously with mononuclear cell infiltration in the tumorous tissues.
Based on these experimental results, the influence of preoperative irradiation on the cell-mediated immunity of the patient with esophageal cancer was examined. The results were as follows;
1) The peripheral lymphoblastogenesis stimulated by PHA was suppressed by irradiation.
2) Twenty seven percent of the patients showed the high lymphoblastogenesis (stimulation index≧2) by 3M-KCI extract of the autochthonous cancer cells.
3) The degree of mononuclear cell infiltration in the irradiated cancerous lesions was lower than that of the unirradiated cancerous lesions.
4) In the 2,000 rads-irradiated cancerous lesions, the lesions with remarkable mononuclear cell infiltration revealed a higher degree of the destruction of cancer cells than that of the lesions with a few mononuclear cell infiltration.
5) There was a significant correlation between the degree of mononuclear cell infiltration in the cancerous lesions and the survival rate of 2,000 rads-irradiated patients.
These results suggested that there was the relation between the cell-mediated immunity of the tumor-bearing host and radiotherapeutic effect, and that it was prognostically favorable to maintain and activate the immunological resistance of host to cancer.

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