Natural killer (NK) and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell activity in healthy volunteers with special emphasis on the familial incidence of cancer.

Natural killer (NK) and lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cell activities in 133 healthy volunteers were analyzed with regard to the volunteer's sex, age, smoking history and the familial incidence of cancer. None of these factors had any influence on NK and LAK cell activities. It was concluded that identifying individuals with increased risk of cancer development by examining NK and LAK activities would be difficult.