REMISSION OF TRANSPLANTED MELANOMA - CLINICAL COURSE AND TUMOR-CELL CHARACTERIZATION

The recipient of a cadaveric kidney was found to have donor melanoma w ithin the graft together with metastatic spread. After cessation of im munosuppression, the kidney rejected and was removed. One month later there was both clinical and radiological evidence of remission and at autopsy 5 months later there was no histological evidence of melanoma. The outcome for recipients of other organs from the same donor was va ried. Tumour cells expressed HLA class I antigens mismatched in the re cipient and mRNA for the costimulator B7, and the cytokines GM-CSF IL- l alpha and beta. These characteristics may have been important in the host immunological response.