Cell-mediated immune responses of breast cancer patients to autologous tumor-associated antigens.

Lymphocyte proliferation assays with autologous tumor material in mixed leukocyte-tumor interactions (MLTI) were employed to monitor tumor-associated cell-mediated immune responses of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with carcinoma of the breast. In addition, leukocyte migration inhibition (LMI) assays were employed to compare reactivity to autologous breast-tumor extracts versus allogeneic breast-tumor extracts. Positive lymphoproliferative responses to tumor-associated antigens (TAA) were observed in the MLTI assay with the use of either intact autologous tumor cells or crude extracts (in mug and ng quantities) in 12 of 34 (35%) breast cancer patients studied. Positive reactivity to tumor, but not to normal tissue of reactive patients, was observed in repeated assays. Finally, patients demonstrating positive MLTI responses to autologous tumor extracts likewise responded in LMI assays to these same autologus extracts as well as to allogeneic breast-tumor extracts, but not to non-breast-tumor extracts. Thus breast tumors appeared to possess common TAA among both male and female patients.