Chemotherapy of human tumors in T-lymphocyte-deficient mice.

Human lung, ovarian, colonic, and renal carcinomas have been grown in mice artificially deprived of T-lymphocytes. All grew slowly and were shown to have a human karyotype even after several transplant generations. Their responses to chemotherapy were similar to the expected clinical response with the important exception of hexamethylmelamine which caused complete regression of two lung carcinomas (even when weighing up to 2.5 g at the start of treatment) and a renal carcinoma, while completely inhibiting the growth of an ovarian carcinoma and another lung carcinoma. Measurement of plasma carcinoembryonic antigen levels proved to be of value in assessing drug efficacy.