Particular features of cell-mediated immunity in patients with anaplastic gliomas. A comparison with kidney and bladder cancer patients.

The authors studied 24 patients affected by anaplastic gliomas in regard to the killer (Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity) and natural killer (Spontaneous Lymphocyte-Mediated Cytotoxicity) immunological functions, by counting the Cr51 release in Change liver and K 562 cell cultures, respectively. These parameters were also evaluated in 24 healthy donors as control, in 24 patients affected by bladder cancer and in nine cases of kidney cancer. Our data show, pre-operatively, a statistically significant impairment of ADCC and SLMC activity in glioma patients as compared both with controls, bladder and kidney cancer patients. The particular impairment of K and NK functions in gliomas is discussed with regard to the specific features of Central Nervous System malignancies. An improvement of ADCC activity was also found in the post-operative samples. This finding confirms other reports about partial restoring of altered immunocompetence after surgery, suggesting a link between extention of tumor mass and impaired immunological reactions.