Immunologic aspects of malignancy. II. Host immunocompetence and relationship to the clinical stage in patients with prostatic cancer.

As knowledge of the stage and grade of tumour are essential to the selection of the appropriate therapeutic modality and subsequent management of the patient, the patient's immunological competence is equally significant. In the present communication a broad spectrum of cellular and humorally-mediated parameters of immunologic responsiveness reflecting more or less general immunocompetence rather than tumour-specific immunity were evaluated in 28 patients with the prostatic cancer. The immunocompetence of these patient's was then "immunostaged" independently without prior knowledge of their clinical stage, and the correlation and significance of these determinations evaluated. In this present preliminary report, a statistically significant correlation (P less than 0.05) was observed between the patients' "immunostage" and clinical stage.