Specificity of Delayed Cutaneous Hypersensitivity Reactions to Extracts of Human Tumor Cells

• Published in: JNCI : Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1978-02, Vol.60 (2), p.255-263
• Main Authors: Weese, James L., Herberman, Ronald B., Hollinshead, Ariel C., Cannon, Grace B., Keels, Marian, Kibrite, Antoine, Morales, Alvaro, Char, Devron H., Oldham, Robert K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antigens, Neoplasm - isolation & purification; Breast Neoplasms - immunology; Cells, Cultured; Colonic Neoplasms - immunology; Epitopes; Female; Humans; Hypersensitivity, Delayed; Intradermal Tests; Lung Neoplasms - immunology; Melanoma - immunology; Neoplasms - immunology; Neoplasms, Experimental - immunology; Sarcoma - immunology
• ISSN: 0027-8874; 1460-2105
• DOI: 10.1093/jnci/60.2.255

The specificity of numerous extracts used for delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity (OCH) testing of cancer patients was evaluated. Tests were performed with crude preparations (hypotonic membrane preparations and 3-M KCI extracts) and with Sephadex and gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) fractions prepared from tumors and from tissue culture (TC) cell lines derived from breast cancer and Ewing's sarcoma. The reactivity and specificity of individual extracts varied considerably. Some extracts were quite reactive and showed diseaserelated specificity; i.e., patients with tumors similar to the extract source were more reactive in OCH testing to some types of extracts than were patients with dissimilar tumors. Other extracts produced skin reactions in patients with various tumors or were poorly reactive. Comparative testing between KCI extracts of cells from the pleural effusion of a Ewing's sarcoma patient and of cells from the TC line derived from these pleural effusion cells showed similar reactivity in patients with Ewing's sarcoma. Of patients tested with KCI extracts of the fresh tumors, 88% were reactive compared with 75% of patients tested with KCI extracts of the tissue-cultured tumor cells; 64% of patients tested simultaneously with KCI extracts of the fresh and tissue-cultured tumors were reactive to both. Sephadex fraction II from a metastatic malignant melanoma elicited many OCH reactions but discriminated poorly between breast cancer and melanoma patients. In contrast, gradient PAGE fractions of a primary breast tumor and of MCF-7 cells, a TC line derived from breast cancer, elicited a breast cancer-related pattern of reactivity. PAGE region 2a of the primary breast tumor and of MCF-7, which gave the best discrimination of all the regions tested, was reactive in 86 and 69% of breast cancer patients, respectively, and in 29 and 28% of patients with other types of neoplasms, respectively. A particularly pure separation of MCF-7 PAGE region 2b1-3 gave positive OCH reactions in 58% of breast cancer patients and in none of 16 patients with cancers of other sites. This study indicated that OCH testing may be useful in the detection of cellmediated immunity to tumor-associated antigens on both fresh tumors and on TC derived from tumors. However, for potential clinical use, a careful examination of the reactivity and specificity of each extract and possibly separation by physicochemical means of tumor-associated antigens from cross-reacting