Immunohistological and functional analyses of lymphoid infiltrates in human glioblastomas

An immunohistological analysis of tumor tissue obtained from seven patients with malignant gliomas demonstrated varying levels of lymphoid cell infiltration. The tumor infiltrating lymphocytes obtained from each sample were cultured in vitro by a limiting dilution technique. In three of the cases studied many tumor infiltrating lymphocyte microcultures selectively lysed autologous glioblastoma cells but did not lyse allogeneic gliomas, natural killer-resistant fresh melanoma cells or K562 target cells. These cultures were found to consist of CD 3+ cells. In six cases studied a variable number of microcultures lysed both autologous tumor and K562 target cells only. A minority of the microcultures studied were cytolytic for allogeneic glioma cells and fresh melanoma target cells. The cytolytic activity expressed by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes against autologous tumor cells was significantly greater (P less than 0.001) than that obtained by the corresponding peripheral blood lymphocytes cultured in a similar manner. The present immunohistological and functional studies suggest that there is an immune response to human glioblastomas in vivo with an accumulation of cells with antitumor activity at the tumor site.