Spontaneous and stimulated nitroblue tetrazolium tests of leukocytes from patients with solid malignant tumors.

Histochemical nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction tests, spontaneous and endotoxin-stimulated, were performed on samples of blood from 202 adult patients with solid neoplastic tumors and 37 healthy control subjects. The patients were classified according to activity of the disease, chemotherapy, and presence of bacterial infection. The NBT test did not prove helpful in detecting the latter condition in these patients. Low median spontaneous reduction values were recorded for patients with active malignancies, or receiving chemotherapy, compared with controls or cured patients without chemotherapy. Stimulated reduction values were significantly lower for all groups of patients than for controls, although for those apparently cured and untreated, stimulated reduction attained significantly higher values than for the other patients. A leukocyte dysfunction caused by both the underlying disease and its chemotherapy is assumed, and the usefulness of the endotoxin-stimulated NBT reduction test in detecting this dysfunction is stressed.