Cryoglobulinemia and decreased monocyte chemotaxis is malignant melanoma

Significant reduction of human monocyte chemotactic response to monocyte-chemotactic protein 1 in patients with primary and metastatic malignant melanoma

The recruitment of leukocytes from the peripheral blood is a key event for the development and composition of the inflammatory infiltrate in solid tumors and tumor metastases like malignant melanoma. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) are thought to play a crucial rôle in tumor immunosurveillance. In malignant melanoma expression and secretion of monocyte-chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) have been demonstrated. MCP-1 serves as an attractant for monocytes and activated T-cells. In this study we addressed the question whether circulating monocytes show altered chemotaxis to MCP-1. Therefore the chemotactic responsiveness of monocytes towards MCP-1 was investigated in patients with primary and metastatic melanoma and compared to patients with basal cell carcinoma and healthy persons. The results show that monocytes from melanoma patients showed a significantly decreased chemotactic migration towards MCP-1 while chemotaxis to the stimulus N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) remained normal. Patients with basal cell carcinoma showed normal monocyte chemotaxis to all stimuli tested. In primary melanoma, there was no relation of the number of TAM or TIL to the decreased chemotaxis of circulating monocytes to MCP-1. From these data it can be concluded that circulating monocytes from patients with primary and metastatic melanoma show a MCP-1-specific decrease in chemotactic migration. This may be due to deactivation or modulation of the MCP-1-receptor expression on these cells.

Monocyte function in cervical carcinoma: plasma inhibitor of monocyte chemotaxis

Blood monocyte function was tested in 43 untreated patients with carcinoma of the cervix (stages Ib to IIIb) and 50 age-matched controls. Monocyte counts, adhesion to glass, spreading on glass, phagocytosis and killing of Candida albicans, and chemotaxis under agarose were not significantly different between the patient and control groups. In 65% of a further series of 17 patient/control pairs, the plasma of cervical carcinoma patients was shown to contain a cell-directed inhibitor of monocyte chemotaxis. The accumulated evidence indicates that production of such factors by malignant tumors is an important mechanism in counteracting mononuclear phagocyte defense.

The influence of lymph node metastasis and ulceration of primary melanoma on germinal centers within draining lymph nodes: a histomorphometric study

Microscopic counts and histoelectronic measurement of germinal centers in regional lymph nodes of melanoma patients showed a significant progressive increase in average number, as well as area, of germinal centers with occurrence of (adjacent) metastasis and presence of primary-tumor ulceration. The findings confirm in a quantitative manner the stage-dependent effect of progressive liberation of tumor antigen [10] on lymph node centers of humoral immune response.