The clinical course in patients with renal carcinoma subjected to extracorporeal immunoadsorption

The clinical course in 4 patients with renal carcinoma stages II, III or IV subjected to periods of extracorporeal immunoadsorption is reported. By this technique we have previously demonstrated that it is possible to isolate and remove circulating tumour associated antigens from the blood stream. The removal of these antigens should, according to present-day concepts, make it possible to control "antigenic inhibition" and/or "blocking", thus facilitating the immune mediated destruction of residual tumour cells in advanced disease. The clinical course in these patients, however, did not differ from the expected clinical course in other such patients. The failure of extracorporeal immunoadsorption to alter the natural course of the disease may be due either to too large a tumour burden or to the possibility that spontaneous tumours during evolution and progression become independent of immune restrictions.