A comparison of the cytotoxic potential in polymorphonuclear leukocytes obtained from normal donors and cancer patients.

Human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) obtained from both normal donors and cancer patients kill human tumor cells in vitro. Furthermore, the PMNs were shown to exert a greater cytotoxic effect on malignant targets than they did on nonmalignant targets. In addition, colon and breast cancer patients with stage I disease were found to possess PMN cells which were less effective in killing the tumor cells than were the PMN cells from normal donors. In contrast, the colon and breast cancer patients with stage IV disease possessed PMN cells which were more effective than normal cells in killing the tumor targets. No clear cut trend was found for PMN cells obtained from breast and colon cancer patients diagnosed with stage II and III disease. However, it must also be noted that individual patients did not always conform to the group pattern.