Antibody responses to T-activated red cells in children from high- and low-risk areas of cancer of the oesophagus in Transkei.

Information is presented on the role of humoral anti-T activity in children residing in areas of Transkei where the incidence of cancer of the oesophagus ranks among the highest in the world. It is significant that children from high-risk areas produce elevated levels of antibodies to the cryptantigenic T structure of autologous cell membranes more often than those from low-risk areas (X2(1) = 32; P less than 0,0005). The extreme variations recorded in anti-T response between these two groups of children could not be related to a greater prevalence of viral infections or other susceptible childhood diseases. Available evidence suggests that the observed differences in anti-T activity may be closely related to environmental nutritive imbalances, some of which are known to be significantly correlated with the high-incidence foci of cancer of the oesophagus in Transkei.