Lysis of autologous tumor cells by blood lymphocytes tested at the time of surgery. Correlation with the postsurgical clinical course.

Lymphocyte-mediated lysis of autologous tumor cells (autologous lymphocyte cytotoxicity ALC) was tested at the time of surgery in 108 patients (46 squamous cell carcinomas of the lung, 25 adenocarcinomas of the lung, 19 soft tissue sarcomas and 18 osteosarcomas). The clinical course of these patients in relation to the test results has been published previously. The group was evaluated again after an extended observation time, now with a mean of 80.2 months (range 36-108). The test was rarely positive in patients with metastasis (2 out of 28 experiments). There was a correlation between the ALC results and the postsurgical clinical course for patients without detectable metastasis in that (1) a negative test was invariably a bad prognostic sign, i.e., all 32 patients with negative ALC died within 3 years (mean survival time 16.1 months). (2) The remission and survival times were longer for the ALC positive patients (p less than 0.001). (3) All 37 individuals who are alive at present without recurrence belong to the reactive group. The ALC results correlated with the clinical course in 88% of patients. The correlation was highest for the groups of soft tissue sarcoma and adenocarcinoma of the lung. There was no correlation between killing of K562 cells and ALC, or between lymphoproliferative response to PHA and ALC reactivity.