The effect of in vitro irradiation on mitogenic responsiveness of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with untreated and cured Hodgkin's disease

✍ Scribed by Edward Baral; Henric Blomgren; Bo Johansson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 374 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19800915)46:6<1353::aid-cncr2820460610>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

Blood lymphocytes from 10 untreated patients with active Hodgkin's disease were compared with those of 10 cured patients with regard to the responsiveness of the cells to PHA and Con A following in vitro irradiation. Lymphocytes of patients remaining in long-term remission exhibited the same pattern of radiosensitivity as those of healthy donors: there was one relatively radiosensitive cell population and one relatively resistant. The latter cell population was undetectable in patients with an active disease. Reappearance of the radioresistant PHA and Con A reactive cell fractions might thus be associated with remission.

Cancer 46:1353-1356, 1980.

N PREVIOUS STUDIES we have investigated the radio-I sensitivity of human peripheral blood lymphocytes.lp3 It was shown, in accordance with other reports,9,12-23 that PHA, Con A, and MLC reactive lymphocyte populations can be divided into two fractions: one that is relatively sensitive and one that is relatively resistant to ionizing radiation. A recent study revealed that the radioresistant cell population is undetectable or missing in patients with untreated Hodgkin's d i s e a ~e . ~ This observation raised the question whether this lack of radioresistant cells is primary or secondary to the disease. Thus, one possibility could be that the lack of the radioresistant lymphocyte population is due to an inborn defect of the T-cell population, which might be a prerequisite for the development of the disease. Alternatively, the absence of the above-mentioned cell fraction could be a consequence of the presence of the malignant disease.

Because of the above considerations we have now compared the in vitro radiosensitivity of peripheral lymphocytes from patients with untreated Hodgkin's disease and those who have remained in complete clinical remission for at least five years after completion of radiation therapy.