No safe harbor.

The autologous and allogeneic immunological humoral response of breast cancer patients to breast tumours was investigated by ELISA assay of both the serum and the supernatants of transformed lymphocytes from the patients and controls. No specificity or increased titre relative to the controls was observed in serum antibody. However, when the response was dissected by the use of clones of transformed lymphocytes from the patients, considerable specificity could be demonstrated in certain clones while other clones showed a generalised specificity which contributed to the masking of the specific response in the serum. Some of these clones may have clinical potential as diagnostic and prognostic tools. The concept of the existence of a significant immune response to autologous tumour tissue in most patients with malignant disease has widespread acceptance among immunologists and clinicians (Herberman, 1983). Such a response may be effected through either humoral or cellular mechanisms or by natural killer cells. Clearly the immortalisation of the B lymphocyte response through human hybridoma production could lead to the production of a valuable clinical reagent for diagnosis. However, this presupposes that the B lymphocyte response to the tumour is specific and does not cross react with other tissues. Rodent hybridomas directed against solid tumours have been employed in both diagnosis and therapy but none of the rodent monoclonal antibodies available are totally specific to tumour antigens and tumour associated antigens are generally employed as targets. However, rodent hybridomas are generated by xenogeneic immunisation which may favour the production of antibodies to major antigens on the tumour tissue which are not specific to its malignant phenotype. Clearly the human response to autologous tumour may reflect a different, and much more relevant spectrum of specificities since, for example, antibodies to histocompatibility antigens are less likely to dominate. Breast cancers may be classified according to stage, histological grade, or content of one of several biochemical markers (Hawkins et al., 1980). Of these latter, oestrogen receptor status gives, perhaps, the most independent information about the biology of the tumour (Leake, 1984). Presence of oestrogen receptor is associated with improved survival (Knight et al., 1977; Bishop et al., 1979) as well as being an indicator of potential for response to endocrine therapy of advanced disease (Hawkins et al., 1980). Inclusion of an index of functional receptor, such as translocation of oestrogen receptor to the nucleus (Leake et al., 1981) or induction of progesterone receptor (Osborne et al., …