Longitudinal studies of cellular immunity of patients with osteogenic sarcoma during chemoimmunotherapy

The cellular immune reactivity of 24 patients with osteogenic sarcoma was studied longitudinally during surgical treatment and subsequent adjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. Cellular immune function was studied using in vitro assays of lymphocyte reactivity to mitogens and nonspecific allogenic antigens. Circulating cells were characterized by the total lymphocyte and wbc counts, determination of E-rosetting populations, and percent of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Both fresh and cryopreserved lymphocytes were utilized and compared. The preoperative values from these studies offered no useful indication of those patients likely to have disease recurrence. Likewise, longitudinal studies during the course of adjuvant treatment did not predict relapse before other routine clinical studies could identify it. There was no difference in the studied lymphocyte functions and hematologic tests between the group receiving BCG immunotherapy and those not receiving BCG. Our studies indicate that current measures of cellular immune function are of little value in the monitoring of patients with osteogenic sarcoma.