PREPARATION OF VIABLE TUMOR-CELL VACCINE FROM HUMAN SOLID TUMORS - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TUMOR MASS AND CELL YIELD

Active specific immunotherapy for cancer often requires the use of aut ologous or allogeneic tumour cells as immunizing antigen. Tumours were obtained for such a protocol. However, estimation of viable cell yiel d from pre-processed fresh tumour mass was difficult, and Initially th ere did not appear to be a direct relationship between pre-processed t umour mass and viable cells obtained after processing. We therefore an alysed all of 293 tumour specimens processed to attempt to discern suc h a relationship. Of these 137 were melanoma, 14 were sarcoma, 48 were adenocarcinoma, 59 were renal cell carcinoma end 35 were classified a s other. A positive correlation was found between pre-processed tumour mass and viable cell yield, with Spearman correlation values varying from r = 0.49 (adenocarcinoma) to r = 0.84 (melanoma). For al tumours the Spearman correlation was r = 0.70 (p = 0.0001). Not surprisingly, the most frequent site of removal associated with bacterial contaminat ion was bower. In conclusion, this study provides useful curves for pr edicting viable tumour cell yield from pre-processed tumour mass of gi ven histology.