Natural killer activity of blood lymphocytes in patients with primary intracranial tumors. Correlation to histological tumor type and anatomical site.

The possible relationship between the natural killer (NK) activity of blood lymphocytes and the histological tumor type or anatomical location of the lesions was examined in 116 patients with primary intracranial tumors. The patients had not undergone any surgical intervention or received any treatment with ionizing radiation or cytotoxic drugs. However, some of them had received corticosteroid medication. Regardless of the histological type of tumor, there was no significant difference in the NK activity of the non-corticosteroid treated patients and the healthy control subjects. However, there was a trend towards an increased NK-activity in patients with low-grade gliomas, in particular oligodendrogliomas. The NK-activity was reduced in patients who were treated with corticosteroids. There was no relationship between the NK-activity in non-steroid treated patients and the anatomical location of the tumor. The latter finding contrasts to a recent observation showing a strong relationship between tumor site and PPD-reactivity of blood lymphocytes in patients with intracranial tumors.