Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition in Cancer Patients and the Repeated Tube LAI Assay

Abstract

The tube Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition (LA!) assays were performed to study immunological reactivity of patients with a variety of tumors (lung cancer, cervix cancer, stomach cancer and hepatoma). The result showed that leukocytes from cancer patients reacted only to the antigenic extracts of tumors of the same type and that the LAI response was directed to an organ type specific neoantigen. After the initial tube LAI assay with normal lung tissue, the repeated tube LAI assay was performed with lung cancer extracts on the resultant cells adherent to the glass tube. In 8 patients with lung cencer, the changes in the number of nonadherent cells were all above 100%, while in 9 healthy control subjects they were all below 100%. NAIs (non adherence index) of the repeated tube LAI assay were significantly higher than those of the original tube LAI assay in patients with lung cancer (p < 0.01).