Cell-mediated immune reactions to clinical neuroblastoma.

Immunotherapy may be an effective treatment for neuroblastoma. It is of importance to delineate changes in various parameters of tumor immunity over an extended period, before and during the course of treatment, in any given case. In our patients with neuroblastoma, tumor-associated cell-mediated immune-reaction showed a good responsiveness before treatment. However, delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity reactions were shown to be negative in many cases, particularly in those with advanced tumor, and T gamma cells were enormously increased in some cases. During the course of therapy, the tumor-associated cellular immune responsiveness showed a tendency to become negative when the patient was tumor free or was in remission, but showed a tendency to become positive on regrowth, recurrence or metastasis of tumor. The T gamma cells showed much the same fluctuations as did the tumor-associated cellular immune responsiveness.