Adoptive immunotherapy of cancer with immune and activated lymphocytes: experimental and clinical studies

Growth Inhibition of Murine Colonic Adenocarcinoma by Tumor Immune but not by IL-2-Activated or Alloactivated Lymphocytes

The antigenic profile of C-26 and C-51 BALB/c colonic adenocarcinomas was examined by in vivo and in vitro assays. Mice immunized with irradiated C-26 or C-51 tumor cells from freshly excised tumor nodules or from in vitro-growing cell lines were able to reject a challenge of both tumors. Spleen lymphocytes of immune but not of normal mice were effective in cross-inhibiting tumor growth in vivo in a Winn assay. Tissue-associated antigens common to C-26 and C-51 and to their metastases but not to other syngeneic neoplasms were detected in vitro by cytotoxic T lymphocytes obtained after 5 days of a secondary culture of immune lymphocytes and irradiated tumor cells. Activated lymphocytes were obtained by exposure of spleen cells to interleukin 2 or by allostimulation. Such lymphocytes, although cytotoxic in vitro on C-26 and C-51 carcinomas, were unable to significantly reduce in vivo tumor growth in the Winn assay.

Potentiation of adoptive immunotherapy by cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II), but not by doxorubicin, on a disseminated mouse lymphoma and its association with reduction of tumor burden

The therapeutic effect of a combination therapy employing syngeneic anti-tumor immune T lymphocytes and either doxorubicin (DX) or cis-diamminedichloroplatinum II (DDP) was tested on BALB/c mice bearing a disseminated, weakly immunogenic lymphoma (YC8) which metastasizes mainly to the liver. Therapy with specific tumor-immune lymphocytes alone cure 80-100% mice bearing 3-day established tumors. The same effector cells, however, were less effective in mice at a more advanced stage of the disease (day 5) and ineffective when treatment was further delayed (day 7). Chemotherapeutic treatment alone with DX or DDP given i.p. at the maximal tolerated doses was less effective than immune lymphocytes on 3-day tumors since cures were very seldom observed, but both drugs prolonged survival time even when administered on day 7. While DX did not enhance the antitumor effect of immune lymphocytes on 5-day tumors, the association of DDP with immunotherapy by giving the 2 modalities sequentially according to the two sequences (i.e., chemotherapy before immunotherapy and vice versa) with a 2-day interval, was significantly more effective than each treatment alone. Like mice cured by immunotherapy alone, most of the animals cured by chemo-immunotherapy developed a systemic transplantation immunity to the tumor as revealed by the specific rejection of a second lethal tumor challenge 90 days after the first tumor inoculum. The higher activity of DDP compared with DX in potentiating the effect of immunotherapy was shown to be associated with a greater reduction of tumor burden in the liver, whereas the 2 drugs gave a similar reduction of tumor burden in other organs, as determined from bioassay of tumor-bearing organs of chemotherapy-treated mice. These results indicate that combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy may improve the effects of each treatment alone, and that the synergistic effect is associated with the reduction of the tumor load in the main organ (liver) of tumor dissemination.