Cell-mediated tumour immunity in patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder.

Some recent data on problems of cell-mediated immune reaction directed against tumour-associated antigens (TAA) of transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder (BTCC) are reviewed. All of the 13 samples of BTCC examined in our laboratory using a lymphocytotoxicity microassay contained the characteristic TAA of urinary bladder carcinomas. TAA were absent in 14 control tissue samples. Forty-seven out of 70 (67%) patients with BTCC developed cytotoxic lymphocytes reacting with BTCC cells. However, cytotoxic lymphocytes were also found in the blood of 8 out of 165 (4.8%) control lymphocyte donors.