[Studies on immunospecificity of skin test using tumor extract in gynecological malignancy (author's transl)]

Twenty-four patients of cervical cancer and 15 of ovarian cancer were studied to ascertain the presence of tumor-specific immune-response by in vivo and in vitro immunoassays. Soluble extracts of cell membranes as antigens were prepared from surgically obtained tumor tissues and normal tissues by 3M-Kcl method. Skin test and in vitro assays, such as Macrophage Migration Inhibition test, Leucocyte Adherence Inhibition assay and lymphocyte blastogenesis, were performed using these extracted antigens. 1. In skin test with autochthonous tumor extracts, positive reaction was revealed in 12.5% of cervical cancer cases and in 13.3% of ovarian cancer cases. There was no positive reaction in skin test with normal tissue extracts and allogeneic tumor extracts. 2. In in vitro assays, the percentage of positive was 30 to 40% in cervical cancer and 50 to 60% in ovarian cancer. It was observed that the patients with positive skin test tended to show also positive reaction in in vitro assays. 3. The positive percentage of non-specific skin tests (PHA, DNCB, PPD and SK-SD) was higher in the positive cases than in the negative in the tumor-specific skin test. Consequently, it was suggested that there were tumor-specific antigens in tumor tissues of cervical cancer or ovarian cancer and immune response of patients to these antigens might depend on individual-specificity.