Immunological monitoring of patients affected by anaplastic glioma concerning in effects of surgery, radio-, and chemotherapy. A preliminary report.

The authors studied 24 patients affected by anaplastic gliomas, as regards immunology. In all of them the authors evaluated the lymphocyte subpopulation (B and T), firstly by simple lymphocyte count, secondly by studying the rosettes E-total and EAC, thirdly by stimulating the lymphocytes with mitogens phyto-haemoagglutinin-P (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A), and pokeweed mitogen (PWM), and lastly by counting the release of Cr51 in Chang liver cells culture in order to obtain antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The parameters were also evaluated after surgery and during conventional radio-chemotherapy with BCNU. Whereas the so-called B-pool seems to be unaffected, the preliminary results show that the T-pool (identified by the E-t rosettes and by responses to PHA, PWM, and ConA) is depressed to a statistically significant degree, if compared with a control group. This depression seems to be related to the tumoral mass, and it is not increased by radio-chemotherapy. In addition, ADCC also seems to be depressed in our glioma patients in comparison with a control group and witha group of bladder cancer patients.