Immunological characterization of mononuclear cells and morphological findings in patients with mammary carcinoma.

Mononuclear cells from peripheral blood and draining lymph nodes of 40 patients with invasive mammary carcinoma were examined for various immunological cell surface markers including surface membrane immunoglobulins and rosetting properties (E, EA, EAC). No significant relationship could be established to anyone of the following criteria for which the literature reports varying prognostic values: Clinical staging of the disease , histological tumor type, grading, nuclear differentiation, round cell infiltration, perivenous infiltration, sinus histiocytosis, and lymph node reaction patterns (lymphocyte predominance, germinal center predominance, lymphocyte depletion, unstimulated nodes). From the reported results it is concluded that the analysis of lymphocyte cell surface markers in mammary carcinoma is not a suitable parameter for supporting the existence of specific or unspecific anti-tumor immune reactions which may be suspected from certain histological reaction patterns.