Morphological abnormalities of lymphocytes from patients with advanced solid tumours.

Characteristic morphological abnormalities were found to be present on lymphocytes from patients with advanced solid tumours. Numerous microprojections were characteristically present on human peripheral blood lymphocytes from cancer patients while non-cancer subject control lymphocytes ('normal' lymphocytes) appeared significantly smoother. Incubation of normal lymphocytes in cancer serum resulted in increased occurrence of these microprojections whereas incubation of normal cells in normal heterologous serum resulted in no apparent surface changes. Incubation of cancer lymphocytes in levamisole, an immunostimulant, did not abrogate surface projections.