Idiotypic vaccination against B-cell lymphoma leads to dormant tumour

Idiotypic immunoglobulin, which can be considered to bear tumour-associated antigens in the context of B-cell lymphoma, has been obtained from the splenic A31 tumour, purified, and used to immunise syngeneic mice. On subsequent exposure to a lethal challenge of lymphoma cells, the mice showed no overt tumour development over an observation period of 6 months, whereas mice immunised with an unrelated idiotypic immunoglobulin succumbed to lymphoma after about 20 days. Anti-idiotypic immunity persisted in protected mice, since a second exposure to a lethal tumour dose 4 months after the first challenge also failed to induce lymphoma. Anti-idiotypic antibody appeared to have a major role in protection when analysed by passive transfer experiments, with no contribution from transferred cells. Protected mice were investigated for the presence of lymphoma cells 4-8 months following exposure to tumour, but the spleens, which were of normal weight and appearance, contained few or no tumour cells by phenotypic analysis. However, passage of cells dispersed from these spleens led, in 60% of cases, to tumour development in unimmunised recipients. The emergent tumours were indistinguishable from the original A31 lymphoma, with no evidence for variants, indicating that the cells were unable to grow in the immune mice, but that this dormant state could be disrupted by transfer.