Host Immune Response to a Common Cell-Surface Antigen in Human Sarcomas

Abstract

Cytotoxic antibody was demonstrated in the serums of four patients with sarcoma against their own autologous sarcoma cells in tissue culture. The presence of a common cell-surface antigen in human sarcomas was suggested by the finding that 70 per cent (58 of 83) of serums from patients with different histologic types of sarcomas were cytotoxic to an osteosarcoma cell line, whereas in serums from patients with other types of neoplasms cytotoxic antibody was no more frequent than in normal blood-donor serums. Further cross-reactivity studies revealed the common sarcoma antigen on tissue-culture cells from four different human sarcomas. Immunization of patients with sarcoma with their own irradiated sarcoma cells induced an increased immune response to this common sarcoma antigen, with a rising titer of cytotoxic antibody.