Observation of activity of IL-2 produced by mononuclear cells in tumor draining lymph-node.

The activity of IL-2 produced by mononuclear cells in draining lymph-onde and peripheral blood from patients with cancer was investigated. It was found that, though the activity of IL-2 produced by peripheral blood mononuclear cells from these patients became much lower, the activity of IL-2 produced by draining lymph node mononuclear cells from the same donors showed no decline, in contrast to non-malignant patients and healthy controls. What is more, the NK cells of tumor draining lymph-nodes responded as strong to xenogenous IL-2 as those of draining lymphnodes from patients with non-malignant disease. The results suggested that some of the immune functions of tumor draining lymph-node mononuclear cells might be more stable than those of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients suffering from cancer, and that local injection of xenogenous IL-2 might enhance the anti-cancer activity of tumor draining lymph-node.