Adoptive immunotherapy of disseminated malignancies. Role of alien histocompatibility antigens on cancer cells and effectiveness of cells from alloimmunized donors.

The potential role of genetically inappropriate histocompatibility antigens on tumor cells as immunogens and targets for immunotherapy is reviewed. The evidence for immunologic mediation of tumor resistance following individual and pool alloimmunization both in vivo in murine and in vitro in murine and human systems is presented. The antileukemic reaction which follows transplantation of cells from alloimmunized MHC-compatible donors to mice bearing disseminated AKR leukemia is discussed in terms of antigen specificity, effector cell mechanisms and as an immunotherapeutic model. Possible advantages of utilizing cells from MHC-compatible allogeneic donors, rather than from tumor-bearing patients, for immunotherapy of human tumors are discussed. Although many investigators are assessing the significance of alien histocompatibility antigens on cancer cells and the mechanism by which alloimmunization induces antitumor immunity, it remains to be determined whether these efforts will result in an important advance in the treatment of patients with disseminated malignancies.