Preoperative cell-mediated immune status of patients with malignant glial tumors.

The leukocyte adherence inhibition assay (LAI) was used to measure cell-mediated immunity in 26 patients with malignant glial neoplasms and in 41 control subjects. A significant inhibition of leukocyte adherence was observed in 21 out of 26 (80%) patients with malignant astrocytic gliomas in the presence of a 3M KC1 extract of glioma tissue compared to that of normal brain extract. Among the control group, no significant difference in the percentage of nonadherent leukocytes (NAL) was noted in the presence of either antigen. To study the specificity of the reaction, 3M KC1 extracts of meningioma, pituitary tumor, carcinoma of breast, carcinomas of lung, melanoma, brain, and heart tissues were employed as non-specific antigens. Such studies revealed significantly lower values of NAL. These data indicate that patients with malignant glial neoplasms manifest a cellularimmune response to glioma-associated antigens that can be measured by the tube LAI assay and that LAI assay may render additional useful information in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of malignant glial neoplasms.