ANTIBODY-DEPENDENT CELL-MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY TO HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS-TRANSFORMED CELLS IN THE COURSE OF CERVICAL CARCINOMA

Abstract

The antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity assay was used to determine whether humoral antibodies from women with cervical carcinoma in the presence of normal mononuclear cells could induce cytotoxicity to hamster embryo fibroblasts, originally transformed by herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) (333–8–9), to a cervical carcinoma cell line (ME-180) and to a lung carcinoma cell line (A-549). Control groups consisted of 81 age-matched healthy women and 77 patients suffering from malignancies other than cervi cal carcinoma. Significant cytotoxicity to HSV-2-transformed cells was ob served in sera from 20 of 28 (71%) surviving patients with cervical cancer who were followed with serum samples collected 6–24 months after initial treat ment. Comparison of serum samples obtained before initial treatment from 20 patients surviving the observation period of 60 months or longer and from 20 patients who died during the observation period showed that the survivors had significantly higher cytolytic activity prior to treatment. Long-term survivors also showed a drop in cytolylic activity in sera obtained 30 months or later after treatment. Patients with long survival but whose cancer finally caused death, had stronger cytolytlc activity than those with short survival (24 months or less). Patients with cervical cancer had significantly higher cytolytic activity to HSV-2-transformed cells and to the cervical carcinoma cells (ME-180) than age-matched control women and patients with malignancies other than cervical carcinoma.