Decreased skin response to intradermal platelet-activating factor (PAF-acether) in cancer patients

The decreased incidence of allergic manifestations in cancer patients compared with noncancer patients is accompanied by a reduced skin sensitivity to histamine.1 Another potent mediator of inflammatory and allergic responses is PAF-acether.:' 3 Previous studies have demonstrated that intradermal injections of PAFacether induced wheal-and-flare response. 4, 5 Therefore, we studied skin response to PAF-acether in cancer patients (Table I). All the components of the skin response to histamine and PAF-acether were depressed in our cancer patients. A decreased flare response to PAF-acether