Glomerular antigen complexes associated with transitional cell carcinoma

An immunofluorescent pattern consistent with glomerular complexes of tumor antigen bound to IgM antibody has been observed in a patient without clinical or pathologic evidence of renal disease. The findings support the thesis that tumors may shed antigen capable of eliciting an immune response which may or may not be associated with clinically evident glomerulopathy.

Lymphocyte antibody interaction in cytotoxicity against human transitional cell carcinoma

The interaction of antibodies and lymphocytes in their immune reaction against human transitional cell carcinomas was studied using the in vitro microcytotoxicity assay. A non-complement dependent, IgG antibody was detected in the serum of occasional transitional cell carcinoma patients, which induced cytotoxicity against transitional cell carcinoma target cells by lymphocytes from donors with and without transitional cell carcinoma. The observation that lymphocytes from transitional cell carcinoma donors were more sensitive to activation by this anti-transitional cell carcinoma, lymphocyte dependent antibody is compatible with the hypothesis that the surface of lymphocytes from some transitional cell carcinoma donors is coated in vivo with an anti-transitional cell carcinoma lymphocyte dependent antibody and that this antibody may be a significant factor in immunity to transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary tract.

Urinary carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-like molecules and urothelial malignancy: a clinical appraisal

A total of 190 patients being treated or followed up for urothelial carcinoma have been studied by the serial estimation of their urinary and plasma CEA levels. Only 46% of patients with a urothelial neoplasm present have a raised urinary CEA level. Infection or ileal conduit urine vitiate the result as they produce high CEA levels in the urine in the absence of any neoplastic disease. The accuracy of urinary CEA estimations is compared with that of cytology. Plasma CEA levels do not serve as a useful guide to the presence of extra-urinary tract tumour spread if taken as isolated readings. However, serial plasma CEA estimations may indicate that metastatic disease is present several months before its detection by the more usual clinical methods in a minority of patients.

Immunologic evaluation of human bladder cancer: in vitro studies

Human bladder cancer tissue were obtained from 31 patients with the histologic diagnosis of transitional cell cancer. Attempts to grow these tumors in tissue culture resulted in 18 primary cultures but only 2 long-term cell lines. Cell-mediated and serum cytotoxicity was demonstrated in both autochthonous and allogeneic experiments. This would suggest a cross-reacting common antigen. In the patients showing positive cytotoxicity, no recurrence of tumor could be demonstrated with up to 3 years' followup after therapy.

A role for the macrophage in in vivo and in vitro resistance to murine bladder tumor cell growth

Studies were performed to determine the role of macrophages in inhibition of growth of the same tumor cell type both in vitro and in vivo. Bladder transitional epithelium tumor cells were injected s.c. into Toxoplasma-infected mice, previously shown to contain activated macrophages, and into uninfected controls. The subsequent growth of a solid tumor was significantly less in the Toxoplasma-infected animals. Bladder tumor cells from the same cell line were grown in vitro either alone or in the presence of peritoneal lymphocytes and/or macrophages from oxoplasma-infected and control, uninfected mice. [3H]Thymidine incorporation by the tumor cells was inhibited only in the presence of macrophages from the Toxoplasma-infected animals. Lymphocytes alone did not appear to be cytotoxic under the conditions used. Moreover, lymphocytes from Toxoplasma-infected mice did not convey cytotoxicity to macrophages from control animals under the experimental conditions used.

Observations on possible autoimmune therapeutic effects in experimentally produced rat bladder tumors

Autoimmune response to normal and tumor bladder tissues in Fisher/Furth rats were obtained. The reaction consisted mainly of severe pericystitis and hemorrhagic lesions. The cellular infiltrate was predominantly lymphocytic including also plasma cells and histiocytes. Serological tests indicated development of host immunological response. 15 of 33 rat bladder tumors involuted entirely in the course of the autoimmune reaction.

Neuraminidase-mediated augmentation of in vitro immune response of patients with solid tumors

Host blood lymphocytes undergo accentuated blastic transformation when cultured with tumor cells pretreated with neuraminidase. The effect has been observed in 38 patients with such common solid tumors as bronchus carcinoma, skin melanoma, hypernephroma, or adenocarcinoma of the breast, lung, colon, or rectum. Individual response varied but often exceeded response to allogeneic cells. Three patients with glioblastoma of the brain did not respond. Lymphoblastic transformation was not observed in three of four cultures containing benign tumor or in any cultures containing normal tissue analogues of the malignant tumors. A factor in host blood serum inhibiting lymphoblastic transformation correlated to abnormal elevation of serum-bound sialic acid. This blocking factor differed in specificity from enhancing antibody or serum blocking complexes described by other investigators. Blocking effects were observed when the tumor-cell type of a serum donor differed from the cell type of the culture test tumor. Serum with abnormal elevation of bound sialate from a cancerfree human also non-specifically blocked host response to tumor. The blocking effect could be eliminated by partial enzymatic removal of bound sialic acid from serum glycoproteins.

Serum induced lymphoid cell mediated cytotoxicity to human transitional cell carcinomas of the genitourinary tract

In some serums of patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), a factor is present which induces lymphocytes from most donors with or without TCC to become cytotoxic against TCC-derived target cells. The induced cytotoxicity was directed against target cells derived from TCC's of the renal pelvis, ureter, and urinary bladder, but not against cells derived from normal kidney, bladder, testis, or skin or from renal cell carcinoma. Cytotoxicity occurred without complement but did not occur without effector cells.

Lymphoid cells mediating tumor-specific cytotoxicity to carcinoma of the urinary bladder. Separation of the effector population using a surface marker

Peripheral lymphocytes from patients with urinary bladder carcinoma and controls have been separated on the basis of rosette formation with sheep erythrocytes. The fractions were tested for tumor-specific cytotoxicity. The E rosette-forming cells of purity 90% respond well in PHA-induced cytotoxicity but are totally inactive in the tumor assay. The non-E rosette-forming cells (purity 91%) give enhanced activity in the tumor-specific cytotoxicity as well as in antibody-mediated target cell lysis in a model system. These data support the notion that the effector cells in cell-mediated immunity to carcinoma of the urinary bladder are members of the nonthymus-derived population of peripheral lymphocytes.