Potentials for Immunologic Intervention in Cancer**This paper supported in part by grants from the American Cancer Society (a Frances K. Braden Memorial Grant for Cancer Research, ACS-ET-6B), the Florida Division of the American Cancer Society (F-7-OUF), an American Cancer Society Institutional Grant (IN-62-G), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-00384), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM-01996), and a training grant in cellular immunobiology from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI-00401).This paper represents an amplification of remarks made introducing a session of the Fifth Annual Brook Lodge Conference, April 26–28, 1971

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates the potentials for immunologic intervention in cancer. Several findings in tumor immunology strongly suggest that practical methods will be forthcoming to permit the detection and measurement of tumor antigens in human cancer patients. Tumor-specific immunity, both cell mediated and that based upon humoral antibodies can be assessed in vitro on an experimental basis. With the exception of the fluorescent antibody techniques and perhaps, one or two complement fixation methods, all of these tests depend upon tissue culture-derived tumor specimens. The in vitro management of such cells mixed with antibody, putatively immune cells or both, involves techniques which are difficult from the technical point of view and based upon the assessment of effects which are rarely all or none. It has been emphasized that the central problem in tumor immunotherapy is not that of inducing the patient to become immune to products of his tumor but rather to make existing, demonstrable immunity more effective in controlling tumor growth.