Capacity of sera from patients with mammary carcinoma to promote PHA-stimulation of human lymphocytes.

Lymphocytes from patients with carcinoma have been reported to exhibit impaired immunologic reactivity and responsiveness to non-specific stimuli both in vivo and in vitro due to inhibitory serum factors. In the present investigation it is tested whether sera from patients with mammary carcinoma may inhibit the response of lymphocytes from normal donors to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in vitro. Neither sera from patients with newly diagnosed breast malignancy nor patients with wide spread disease differed from control patients with benign breast lesions. Serum activity did not change within 3 weeks after radical mastectomy or local irradiation but increased slightly after 6 weeks. It is suggested that the impaired PHA-responsiveness of lymphocytes in patients with mammary carcinoma is not due to blocking serum factors but to intrinsic cellular abnormality.