E and EAC rosetting lymphocytes in patients with carcinoma of bronchus. II. A sequential study of thirty patients: effect of BCG

Abstract

T and B lymphocytes have been estimated in thirty patients with carcinoma of bronchus at monthly intervals. The patients have been treated by surgery, radiotherapy or no conventional antineoplastic therapy, with or without monthly intradermal BCG. Significant increase in T-lymphocyte percentages occurred in three out of six patients treated by BCG and no conventional therapy, and similar increases were observed in other BCG-treated patients. Patterns emerged suggesting that the T-lymphocyte percentage may be depressed, directly or indirectly, by tumour and recover after surgery or palliative radiotherapy; that high T-lymphocyte levels may accompany reactive lymphocytosis to tumour and that T-lymphocyte collapse was associated with, and appeared to precede terminal clinical deterioration in many patients.