Tumor Immunity: Impairment in Tumor-Bearing Hosts

Summary

Cell-mediated systemic tumor immunity in strain-2 guinea pigs was transferred passively from immunized donors to unimmunized syngeneic recipients. In unimmunized recipients bearing relatively large established tumors, however, the transferred tumor immunity was markedly impaired. This impairment occurred whether or not the established tumor and the test tumor were antigenically related. Evidence indicated that general debility of the tumor-bearing host was not responsible for the impairment of passively transferred tumor immunity. Serum from animals bearing large tumors had no effect on passively transferred systemic tumor immunity. The presence of a large tumor had no effect on local passively transferred tumor immunity. We conclude that factors contributed by the recipient are required for the successful transfer of systemic tumor immunity.