T and B lymphocytes in breast cancer stage relationship and abrogation of T-lymphocyte depression by enzyme treatment in vitro.

B and T lymphocytes have been measured in 100 women--71 patients with breast cancer and 29 controls--using sheep-erythrocyte rosetting techniques. Compared with controls (healthy women or patients with benign breast disease), there is a highly significant depression of T-cell percentage in all stages of breast cancer except locally advanced (stage 3) disease. These stage-3 cases seem to constitute a biologically distinct group. T-cell percentages in early (stage 1) patients overlap with those seen in stages 3 and 4, raising the possibility that there are in stage 1 two subpopulations of T-cell values that are associated with differences in subsequent tumour progression. B-lymphocyte levels are similar in all groups. Low T-cell levels return to normal after incubation with papain in virto but fall again after resuspending the treated lymphocytes in autologous (cancer) serum. The results suggest that T-cell depression is due to a masking factor on the surface of some T lymphocytes which is also present in the serum of cancer patients, and removable by enzyme digestion.