DETECTION OF OLIGOCLONAL T-LYMPHOCYTES IN LYMPH-NODES DRAINING FROM ADVANCED NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER

Despite the combined use of surgery and chemoradiotherapy, the poor pr ognosis of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) requires the de finition of new therapeutic approaches. The presence of T lymphocytes, with peculiar phenotypic, functional and molecular characteristics wi thin the tumour, suggested the possible use of these cells, expanded i n vitro, in protocols of adoptive immunotherapy. We have described how a population of oligoclonal T lymphocytes, derived from advanced NSCL C, can be expanded in vitro and has the capability of lysing autologou s cancer cells. What is more important, we observed that patients with advanced NSCLC, treated with Tn expanded in vitro and recombinant int erleukin-2, seemed to have a disease-free period longer than that of p atients treated with conventional chemoradiotherapy. In an attempt to find new sources of specific lymphocytes for immunotherapy, we describ e the analysis of the phenotypic, functional and molecular characteris tics of T lymphocytes, derived from lymph nodes draining advanced NSCL C. In this paper we show that these cells, have restriction patterns o f T cell receptor beta chain similar to those detectable in the popula tion of infiltrating T lymphocytes. This finding suggests that T cells derived from draining lymph nodes of advanced NSCLC have peculiar cha racteristics and can be a suitable source of effector cells for protoc ols of adoptive immunotherapy in lung cancer treatment.