Cytotoxicity of effector cells of the peripheral blood, lymph nodes and spleen in Hodgkin's disease

The mononuclear cells and T-lymphocytes of the blood, spleen and lymph nodes from 83 patients with Hodgkin's disease and 50 healthy donors were tested in assays for lectin-dependent (LD) and natural killer (NK) cytotoxic activity (CTA). On an average, peripheral blood T cell LD-CTA of patients did not differ from that of the donors. However, the CTA appeared to be dependent on the stage of the disease; in the IVth stage LD-CTA was decreased 2-fold. The LD-CTA was also dependent on the histological type of disease and the lowest level of LD-CTA (50% of the control level) was associated with the "lymphocyte depletion" type. The CTA of T-lymphocytes from the affected areas of the patients' spleen was more marked than that of the unaffected areas. Spleen cell CTA showed no other correlations. The CTA of lymphocytes from the affected lymph nodes was drastically lower than CTA of blood and spleen lymphocytes. The NK activity of the patients' blood and spleen lymphocytes was twice as less as the control level (healthy donors) and did not correlate with a stage and/or a histological type of the disease. It was assumed that in Hodgkin's disease the specific antitumor immunity remains mostly within normal and is decreased only in the last, terminal stage of the disease.