Effect of therapeutic irradiation on lymphocyte transformation in lung cancer

Abstract

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with advanced cancer have a reduced capacity to respond to in vitro stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA). The response is only slightly improved by growing the cells in normal plasma as supplement. After 3 weeks of therapeutic irradiation, there is a marked depression in the responsiveness of the lymphocytes. Neither before irradiation nor during irradiation could any plasma factor be demonstrated in the cancer patient's plasma that inhibited the normal lymphocytes' response to PHA. Lymphocytes from patients with cancer of the lung who had received intensive therapeutic irradiation as part of their original therapy, and who had survived for longer than 11 months, showed a greatly diminished capacity to respond to PHA.