Clinical Status of Patients with Osteogenic Sarcoma * Circulating Received Length Phase at antitumor transfer of Patient Age Sex diagnosis

Tumor-specific transfer factor may produce an increase in cell-mediated cytotoxicity to the tumor in patients with osteogenic sarcoma. This possibility is suggested by the pain and edema that occurred in the area of the tumor in patients who had metastatic disease when therapy was started and by lymphocytic infiltrates in the tumor, as well as by the increase in cell-mediated cytotoxicity and the increase in percentage of active rosette-forming cells from subnormal to normal. Serial measurements of cell-mediated cytotoxicity are helpful in monitoring the efficacy of transfer factor and other modes of therapy in these patients, and these measurements are the best available criteria for selection of donors of tumor-specific transfer factor. Received for publication 17 October 1973 and in revised form 4 November 1974. INTRODUCTION Dialyzable transfer factor was first described in 1955 by Lawrence (1), who subsequently conducted a series of meticulous studies of its properties (2). In 1970 our group reported the therapeutic use of transfer factor in a patient with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a genetically determined cellular immune deficiency (3). Since 1970 transfer factor has been used to treat a variety of diseases (4-7); we have used it in more than 200 patients. The possible relationship of immunologic defenses to survival of patients with malignant disease has been the subject of many reports (8). It is currently believed that antibody-mediated responses to tumors may, in some instances, enhance growth of tumors and, in others, be toxic to malignant cells; cell-mediated immunity usually inhibits growth of tumors (9, 10). Transfer factor can enhance cell-mediated immunity, but has no effect on humoral immunity (3); therefore, it appeared useful to investigate its use in the treatment of malignant neoplasms unresponsive to other measures. In patients with osteogenic sarcoma, surgical excision, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy have produced a survival rate of only about 20%. Because some household contacts of patients with this tumor have cell-mediated immunity against the tumor (11) and can serve as a source of tumor-specific transfer factor, this investigation of the immunologic status of 18 patients with osteogenic sarcoma was undertaken. In 13 of these patients, clinical results of treatment with tumor-specific transfer factor, obtained from carefully selected donors and used as an experimental adjunct to conventional The Journal of Clinical Investigation Volume 55 March 1975 487-499 487