Defective chemotactic factor-induced monocyte complement receptor enhancement in lung cancer

We have studied monocyte complement (C3b) rosettes, and chemotactic factor (CF)-induced enhancement of rosettes, in 37 patients with bronchial carcinoma (BC), and compared these findings to those obtained from nine age and sex matched patients with non-malignant respiratory disease (NMRD), and 38 normal healthy controls (HC). No differences in monocyte C3b rosettes were found when BC was compared with NMRD or HC. In contrast, there was a highly significant inhibition of CF-induced complement receptor enhancement (CRE) in monocytes from patients with extensive or metastatic BC compared to NMRD or HC. These differences increased with time of incubation and concentrations of CF, and occurred when either f-met-leu-phe, leukotriene B4 (LTB4) or casein were used as the enhancing agent. The defect in monocyte CRE was related to the stage of the disease (with the rank order, metastatic greater than confined to chest greater than localized tumour) but not to the pathohistological type. A similar impairment in CRE was observed when neutrophils from BC were compared to HC. These experiments suggest that, in patients with advanced bronchial carcinoma, monocyte and neutrophil C3b receptors have impaired responsiveness to chemotactic factors.