Local adoptive transfer of antitumor cellular immunity to xenogeneic animals studied with a rapid radioisotopic footpad assay.

The antitumor cellular immune response to Gross virus-induced rat tumor cells in F344 rats, as measured by a sensitive radioisotopic footpad assay, was adoptively transferred to syngeneic rats and to xenogeneic irradiated BALB/c mice. Xenogeneic transfer was accomplished by the injection of a mixture of rat tumor cells and syngeneic spleen cells, peritoneal exudate cells, or blood lymphocytes from specific immune rats into the footpads of mice. Peritoneal exudate cells produced the strongest footpad reaction in xenogeneic recipients. Use of the xenogeneic adoptive transfer system in a bioassay for human antitumor immunity appeared feasible.