Spontaneous lymphokine activated killer (LAK) activity in bronchoalveolar lavage cells from patients with bronchogenic carcinoma.

Bronchoalveolar lavage cells (BAC) are considered to be representative of cells that are in the interstitium and in patients with lung cancer, may represent, in part, cells that infiltrate cancerous tissue. We used bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens to test the hypothesis that cells within this region might be regulated locally by factors and show activities that are dependent on these growth and activation mediators. We showed previously that Natural Killer (NK) activity and IL2 titers were proportional. As compared to normal subjects, patients with all stages of bronchogenic carcinoma consistently had very high levels of IL2 in their bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and this titer correlated with an increase in NK activity in the BAC both in absolute level and in relative level to the blood. Now, we report results that show that spontaneous lymphokine activated killer (LAK) activity also can be measured in most patients, but not all patients, that express IL2 titers. These findings support the hypotheses that different types of nonspecific cytotoxic cells are present and active in cancerous lung specimens secondary to the secretion of lymphokines from activated T lymphocytes in that region and that LAK activity is a physiological phenomenon that may be expressed in regional rather than systemic areas of the body.