Effect of adriamycin and Corynebacterium parvum in tumor-bearing mice: modulation of response to sheep red blood cells.

Administration of adriamycin and Corynebacterium parvum alone in C57BL/6J mice bearing Lewis lung carcinoma stimulated the direct (19S) and indirect (7S) plaque-forming cell (PFC) response specific for sheep red blood cells. Thus adriamycin appears to possess some immunostimulatory effect on tumor-bearing mice with much less effect than C. parvum alone. Simultaneous administration of adriamycin and C. parvum decreased the PFC response compared to that for C. parvum alone. This decrease may indicate that drug-vaccine interaction could produce some inhibition of the strong immunostimulatory effect of C. parvum as measured by the PFC response in tumor-bearing mice. The immunostimulatory effect of adriamycin and C. parvum administered as a single agent or in combination was associated with significant splenomegaly. The results of this study could be helpful in clinical situations when these agents are used alone or combined.