Immunological studies of women with primary breast carcinoma

Lymphocytes from disease-free women and women with primary breast carcinoma were comparable vis-a-vis their capacity to inactivate breast tumor cells in vitro. Sera from comparable numbers of women in each of these two groups either blocked, potentiated or left unaffected the anti-tumor-cell cytotoxicity of their lymphoctes. As such, the results cast doubt on the validity of the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the presence of humoral blocking factors and in vivo tumor progression.