RESUMO
The blastogenic reactivity of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) and mesenteric lymph node lymphocytes (LNL) against normal allogeneic leukocytes and autochthonous colorectal carcinoma cells is evaluated in 36 patients, and correlated with the patient's Dukes classification. Mesenteric LNL react significantly better than PBL to allogeneic leukocytes in both Dukes B and C (p less than 0.05). There are too few patients in Dukes A and D to permit statistical evaluation but the trend is the same. By contrast, LNL fail to react to autochthonous tumor cells in all classes, except in a few Dukes B patients. The proportion of PBL reactivity to autochthonous tumor cells seems to increase for Dukes C and D. It is possible that specific lymphocyte reactivity in colorectal carcinoma may be related to the antigenicity and immunogenicity of the tumor.
