[Antitumor activity of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in vitro and in vivo]

The antitumor activity of highly purified tumor necrosis factor (TNF) was tested. TNF had direct cytotoxic activity on all cancer cells examined in vitro, and no species specificity. Normal cells showed no damage on addition of TNF. TNF showed excellent curative effects against all types of murine and human tumors tested in vivo. A great difference in curative effects of TNF was observed between Meth A sarcoma transplanted into Balb/c nu/+ and Balb/c nu/nu mice with a single intravenous administration. This experiment suggested that in addition to direct cytotoxicity against tumor cells, TNF-induced host-mediated factor which contributed to the antitumor effects Murine TNF has on inhibitory effect against multiple pulmonary metastasis of Lewis Lung-tumor. Very few references to this field could be found in the literature and the present paper mainly presented our own research.