Cell immunity indices in carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract

: A group of 137 patients with carcinoma and benign diseases of the gastrointestinal tract was tested for a specific immunity to tumor, mucosa antigens and PHA. A response of peripheral blood lymphocytes to PHA was suppressed in patients with cancer. An assay of the specific reactivity against tumor antigens was done either by a lymphoblastic transformation or by the leucocytes migration inhibition agarose technic. More than one third of cancer patients showed positive ractions to tumor extracts in autologous as well as allogeneic systems. No differences were noted between the effect of the mucosa or tumor extract in a group of benign diseases by migration inhibition technic, but there were 11 of 23 patients who showed a blasttransformation reaction to tumor antigen. The autologous mucosa extract had no effect on lymphocytes of cancer patients, but it was found to inhibit the leucocytes migration. The action of tumor extracts was comparable in autologous and allogeneic systems. The presence of common or cross-reactive tumor antigens in gastrointestinal cancer is assumed. Some possible reasons of the changes are discussed.