Recognition of Leukaemia Cells as Foreign before and after Autoimmunization

Abstract

Leukaemia cells in the peripheral blood of nine patients with acute leukaemia were removed and stored. When the patients had been brought into haematological remission these leukaemia cells were cultured with autologous lymphocytes both before and after the patients had been autoimmunized with their own irradiated leukaemia cells. The extent to which the leukaemia cells stimulated the “normal lymphocytes” was increased as the result of autoimmunization. The implications of the use of this test for determining the best regimen for “immunotherapy” in acute leukaemia are discussed.