Heat shock protein antibodies in sarcoma patients undergoing 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia

Previous in vitro studies of sarcoma and normal cell lines exposed to 41.8 degrees C (x 60 min) demonstrated selective increased expression of members of the heat shock protein (HSP) family 70 on the cell surface of the sarco ma cells only. One implication of these data relates to the clinical applic ation of targeting a stress-inducible, tumor-specific immune response. We t herefore elected to measure immune response parameters (i.e., serum antibod ies against HSP701, 60, and 27) in six patients with sarcoma using a Wester n blot technique. These study patients received one to four successive 41.8 degrees C whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) x 60-min treatments (given every 3 weeks). We also tested the serum of 10 untreated healthy control subjects for the same parameters. In all patients, baseline HSP antibody levels were detectable; in no case did WBH result in an increase in HSP antibodies. Th e serum of one patient with sarcoma demonstrated a strong nonfluctuating re action against HSP27 before and after WBH that had no obvious correlation; this was not observed in the sera of the control subjects. This study sugge sts that WBH does not induce a B-cell response to HSP family 70 antigens; t hese data, however, do not exclude the possibility of NK cell activation du e to HSP antigen presentation.