<i>In vitro</i> demonstration of tumor‐specific antigens in spontaneous mammary tumors of mice

Abstract

Abstract The colony‐inhibition test has been used to demonstrate cellular immunity against spontaneous murine mammary tumors, both in autochthonous, mammary tumor virus (MTV)‐carrying BALB/cfC3H and in immunized, MTV‐free, BALB/c mice. Immunity could be demonstrated in nearly all cases against a mammary tumor with lymph‐node cells from mice which had experienced that tumor. One of eight tumors tested with lymph‐node cells from BALB/cfC3H mice which had spontaneously developed mammary tumors showed evidence of immunological cross‐reactivity, while seven of thirteen tumors did so when tested with immune cells from MTV‐free BALB/c mice. The data, therefore, indicate the presence of at least two types of tumor‐specific antigen (s) in mouse mammary tumors — a common one and an antigen specific for each neoplasm.