Prognostic value of various immunological tests in breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant postoperative chemotherapy.

Eighty-three patients, operated for carcinoma of the breast, received adjuvant therapy with chlorambucil, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil or cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-flourouracil. This group was subjected to a study exploring prognostic value, as defined by disease-free survival, of some immune variables. These included numbers of blood lymphocytes expressing membrane receptors for sheep erythrocytes (mainly T-cells), receptors for C'3 (mainly B-cells) and proliferative responses of the cells to phytohemagglutinin, purified protein derivative of tuberculin and in a mixed lymphocyte culture. Follow-up time was 30-71 months after start of adjuvant therapy. None of these variables showed any significant relation to prognosis in the present patient material. In addition, there was no detectable relation between numbers of eosinophils in the blood and disease-free survival. The well-known importance of tumor size and/or involvement of axillary nodes was, however, confirmed.