Induction of lymphokine-activated killer activities in peripheral blood lymphocytes and regional lymph node lymphocytes against PC-9 cultured adenocarcinoma and autologous pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells.

The cytotoxic activities, of the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and regional lymph node lymphocytes (LNL) generated by incubation with recombinant IL-2 (rIL-2) in vitro, have been studied to assess their effects on autologous pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells from 21 patients with lung cancer. The lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) activities of PBL were 22.9 +/- 14.8% for autologous pulmonary adenocarcinoma cells and 44.9 +/- 20% for PC-9 cells. A previous coculture of autologous tumor cells with PBL (ATS-LAK) showed no increase in induction of cytotoxicity to autologous tumor cells. The LAK activities of LNL were significantly lower than those of PBL. The cytotoxicities of rIL-2 activated lymphocytes seemed lower in well differentiated pulmonary adenocarcinoma than in moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and higher in patients with lymph node metastasis than in those without; they appeared, however, not to be related to clinical stage or degree of infiltration of T-zone histiocytes into the cancer stroma. The cytotoxicity to autologous tumor cells was not significantly different in the presence of the Ia antigen expressed on tumor cells, but the cytotoxicity to Ia positive PC-9 cells was significantly higher for rIL-2 activated lymphocytes from patients with lung cancer cells which were Ia positive than from those where they were Ia negative. The presence of Ia antigen on tumor cells seemed important for antitumor activity.