Profound depression of alveolar macrophage functions in bronchial carcinoma

Alveolar macrophages (AM) obtained from a patient with advanced bronchial carcinoma have been studied in the course of a series of experiments examining human alveolar macrophage functions. The AM from this single patient exhibited profound depression of function, being unable to phagocytose opsonised Staphylococcus aureus and failing to release hydrogen peroxide when stimulated by phorbol myristate acetate. The relevance of these findings in the context of host-tumour responses is discussed and the case is reported to stimulate prospective, controlled studies.