[Immunity in leukemia: reason for onset of leukemia, agent for successful therapy of leukemia]

Authors present the facts which indicate that in human medicine there is immunity against malignant tumors and leukaemia through T lymphocytes immunological control. The appearance of leukaemia in a certain number of persons is due to reduced immunity in the patient or weak antigen immunogenicity of leukaemic cells. Authors also present evidence for the existance of tumor antigens same as in leukaemic leukocytes in human pathology. These antigens belong either to still undiscovered viruses of human leukaemia, as is the case of reverse transcriptase of RNK virus, found in leukocytes of 95 percent of patients with acute leukaemia, or they are new antigens formed by combination of cell genoma and virus genoma, or by depression of the gene which were active only during the foetal life under the influence of oncogenic chemical substances or viruses. The evidence is given too, concerning the existence of immune response in human medicine, in the form of cytotoxic antibodies or sensitized T lymphocytes to tumor antigens which can be demonstrated in vitro by the test of colonial growth inhibition of tumor cells. As the immunity does not operate against tumor or leukaemic cells, the reason for it must be sought in the disorder of the afferent part (weak immunogenicity of tumor antigens, tolerance of tumor antigens, etc.), or of the efferent part of the immune response (the presence of blocking factors in the patient's plasma). At the end, the authors also discuss about the attempts of immunological treatment of acute leukaemia, and the results to this date are encouraging.