Leukocyte migration inhibition by soluble extracts of MCF-7 tissue culture cell line derived from breast carcinoma.

Studies were conducted to determine whether MCF-7, a tissue culture cell line derived from a pleural effusion of a patient with breast carcinoma, could be used as a source of tumor-associated antigen for direct leukocyte migration-inhibition (LMI) assays. Of 32 patients with breast carcinoma, 27 (84.4%) gave positive migration-inhibition results on their initial tests with a 25-mug protein/ml concentration of a 3 M KCl extract of MCF-7; 1 of 24 (4.5%) normal donors reacted with MCF-7. An intermediate incidence of reactivity (7/16) was observed with the extract when leukocytes of patients with melanoma, lung carcinoma, and Ewing's sarcoma were used. In further specificity studies, leukocytes of patients with breast carcinoma gave a lower incidence of LMl reactivity than did those of patients with Ewing's sarcoma and lung carcinoma with KCl extracts of the appropriate histologic type of tumor. The results indicated that the MCF-7 cells possessed a tumor-associated antigen to which many patients with breast carcinoma are sensitized.