Tumor regression at an untreated site during immunotherapy of an identical distant tumor.

The effects of two immunotherapy regimens on the development of an untreated, uniformly lethal transplantable line-10 hepatoma in strain 2 guinea pigs were monitored during treatment of an identical tumor 10 cm away. Line-10 cells were injected intradermally simultaneously at each of two sites. When one site was treated 6 and 16 days later with rabbit antibody against guinea pig fibrin fragment E, the complete regression of the treated tumor, a 25--30% depression in the development of the untreated tumor, and an increased survival time were observed. In another group of animals, when one site was treated 5 days after tumor challenge with syngeneic or xenogeneic "tumor-immune" RNA in a regimen including syngeneic nonsensitive lymphoid cells and tumor-specific antigen, all animals survived after complete and apparently specific regression of the tumors at both the treated and untreated sites. For the RNA regimen, we have shown that immunotherapy of an intradermally established line-10 tumor results in complete abrogation of both the treated and a distant untreated tumor; i.e., demonstrating a systemic effect.