Immunity to colon cancer assessed by antigen-induced inhibition of mixed mononuclear cell migration.

A purified preparation of mixed human peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes was used in an inhibition-of-migration assay for cell-mediated immunity to cancer of the colon. This preparation was reproducibly antigen-responsive and migrated with greater reliability than did a more complex cell mixture. Of 27 patients with this disease, cells from 24 showed inhibited migratio in response to colon carcinoma antigen. Uninhibited migration patterns were found in each of the 52 cancer-free controls, including eight patients with nonmalignant disease initially diagnosed as cancer of the colon, and in nine patients with surgically cured adenocarcinoma of the colon.