Circulatory and cellular immune responses to squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

The sera from 176 patients with cervical cancer were examined by indirect immunofluorescence against cervical cancer cells (imprints of cervical cancer tissue). The mean serum titer in these patients was significantly higher than the titer in two control groups of identical size. These tumor-related antibodies were also higher in titer in sera from a small sample of nine husbands of cancer patients than in 18 control group patients. A cell-mediated immune response was studied with the use of leukocyte-migration inhibition from 39 blood specimens, including 23 patients with invasive epithelial carcinoma, five with intraepithelial carcinoma of the uterine cervix, six with other gynecologic diseases, and five without gynecologic disease. Migration inhibition was demonstrated for squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix, suggesting a common specific cell-mediated response.