The lymphocyte and human lung cancers.

to extend our knowledge about such interactions substantially beyond that afforded by other presently used methods. In essence, the method uses primary explants of human cancers in autologous and short-term tissue culture systems and permits several useful measurements of distinctive types of lymphocyte activities. In particular, the presence or absence of different types of lymphocyte activities in â€oecolonies†• (to be defined) of neoplastic and nonneoplastic cells appears to be not only a valid means of establishing in part the degree of lymphocyte response but also seems to reflect special functional capabifities of the lymphocyte. Moreover, both colony counts and ratio determinations, i.e. , frequencies of each type oflymphocyte interaction in a given cell population, the number of lymphocytes participating in each interaction, and the types of target cells involved, can be achieved with biopsy samples of cancer tissues. Thus, this new approach has the potential to bypass much of the sampling and evaluation problems of the histological preparation. Although there are a number of recent publications on lymphocyte interactions with neoplastic and nonneoplastic are few reports wherein lymphocyte interactions with human cancer cells have been studied in an autologous tissue culture system (2, 7, 8, 16). Most pertinently, there have been no studies except for our own preliminary reports (24, 26, 27) specifically designed to evaluate intrinsic autologous lymphocyte-cancer cell interactions, i.e. , where lymphocytes are already a part of the cancer mass and are not secondarily introduced. Further, the evaluation includes 1 random and 3 special types of lymphocyte activities [clustering (31), congregation (24), and emperipolesis (16)] occurring among human neoplastic and nonneoplastic cells in primary tissue cultures. The emigrating lymphocytes in primary tissue cultures of lung are classified as migratory and ameboid lymphocytes because of their differences in appearance and behavior (24). The migratory lymphocytes are rounded or pear-shaped cells, while the ameboid lymphocytes are cells with remarkably â€oespread†• cytoplasm and nucleus, the spreading indicating an extraordinary increase in surface area contact with other cells. The lymphocyte interactions with neoplastic and non neoplastic lung cells are divided into â€oerandom†• and 3 â€oespecial†• types of interactions, determined through phase-contrast observations, time-lapse film reviews, and examination of stained preparations. Both migratory and ameboid lymphocytes participate in random interactions with neoplastic and nonneoplastic cells; on occasion, 1 or 2 lymphocytes may localize briefly on a cell of the monolayer, but penetration of the cells by the lymphocyte …