IMMUNOLOGY OF SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA OF THE HUMAN UTERINE CERVIX

Squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix is a dynamic process which because of its ease of accessibility can be studied as an ideal human model for exploration of host-tumor interrelationship from its inception to its conclusion.;The serum of patients with actively growing tumor, abrogates this cytotoxic reaction at both effector and target cell level. The immunoglobulin-G, isolated by ion exchange chromatography and immunoglobulin-M isolated by molecular sieve chromatography probably represent the blocking factors of the sera. Removal of these two immunoglobulin from the sera of patients with actively growing tumors, abrogates the blocking activity. Few of patients with preinvasive lesions but almost all of those with invasive stages of the disease did demonstrate blocking activity in their sera.;Effective treatment of the lesion, causes disappearance of this blocking activity, whereas it persists in patients with recurrent tumors. The demonstration of blocking activity in vitro may represent the escape mechanism in vivo for the tumor growth in spite of the potent specific cytotoxicity.;Using the gamma globulin fraction of the patients' sera as a source for the related antibody, tumor associated antigens could be localized on the tumor cells in the tissue by immunoperoxidase technique.;The peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with preinvasive and invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix react specifically to allogeneic homologous tumor. They also show specific cytotoxicity against a homologous tumor cell line that was originally developed from invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. The washed peripheral blood lymphocytes of these patients retain this reactivity until the terminal stages of the disease. Effective treatment of this disease by all therapeutic modalities in both preinvasive and invasive stages, eliminates the reactivity, whereas those patients with recurrent tumor retain the reactivity.;There was no particular change in the distribution of subpopulations of lymphocytes throughout the spectrum of this disease process.