Immunologic impairment in patients with non-lymphoid cancer: correlation with the tumoral stage, response to treatment and survival.

The cellular immunity has been studied in 121 patients by solid nonlymphoid tumors, and in 50 healthy patients, 11 with benign tumors, with the use of techniques of in vivo dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) and in vitro lymphocyte response to phytohemagglutinin to observe the correlation between both tests and the clinical stage of the disease, the response to chemotherapy and surgery, prognosis, and survival. Patients with anergy presented tumoral irresectability, lack of response to chemotherapy, advanced disease, and limited survival. In the patients with good immune response, the disease was limited, responding with greater frequency to therapy and presenting a higher rate of survival. Consequently, the immunologic study of a neoplastic patient can guide us toward a therapeutic behavior and a prognosis.