Some immunological considerations relevant to the study of human bladder cancer.

The likelihood that immunosurveillance, concomitant immunity, and immunodepression play a role in the development and spread of neoplasms of the urinary bladder is discussed. The circumstantial evidence for the existence of concomitant immunity to bladder cancer-associated antigens is briefly reviewed, and the implications of the hypothesis of Zinkernagel and Dougherty of a genetic restriction to the cytotoxicity of T-cells for virally determined target cell antigens and of the concept of immunoregulatory cells for our understanding of the immunology of bladder carcinoma are discussed.