Evaluation of the specificity of the leukocyte migration inhibition test against histologically homologous and heterologous neoplastic antigens in cancer patients

The aim of the present study was to verify whether the CMI response of the host's lymphocytes is directed towards tumor-associated antigens (TAA) specific for each histological type of tumor. The leucocyte migration inhibition (LMI) test was selected for this purpose, utilizing the cancer patients' leucocytes and, as neoplastic antigens, formalin-fixed cells of surgically removed cancer tissue. Two hundred and eighteen patients were studied, 110 of whom were affected by breast cancer, 48 by digestive tract and 60 by laryngeal cancer. The total amount of tests performed was 278. The leucocytes of 93 normal subjects were tested against the different tissues' cancer antigens, as were the leucocytes of 41 patients with cancer of different organs tested against the corresponding normal tissues' antigens. The breast cancer patients (122 tests performed) showed 82.35 % positive tests against homologous antigen, 72.72 % and 95.24 % against heterologous (digestive tract and laryngeal cancer, respectively) antigens. The digestive tract cancer patients (69 tests performed) showed 70.27 % positive tests against homologous, 66.66 % and 43.48 % against heterologous antigens (breast and laryngeal cancer, respectively). The laryngeal cancer patients (87 tests performed) showed 74.29 % positive tests against homologous, 38.10 % and 80.65 % against heterologous antigens (breast and digestive tract, respectively). The results led to the conclusion that the LMI test response of cancer patients was not « tissue specific »: the test did not discriminate between the homologous and the heterologous cancer antigens, and it seems that the response was not directed towards specific TAA but only towards wide-range or « group » TAA, shared by several types of tumors.