title: Evaluation of immunological reactivity on the basis of spleen white pulp morphology in patients with far advanced urological malignancy.
abstract: The histological alterations in the white pulp of the spleens collected from sixty-one patients who had died of widespread urological carcinomas were assessed by using a standardized reporting system previously introduced by the author. As a control material the same number of age, and sex-matched patients who had died on myocardial infarction without signs of any malignancy was used. Special attention was focused on the evaluation of the lymphocyte populations (T- and B-cell areas) responsible for the immunological reactivity of the host. Morphological characteristics suggesting to reflect the activity of both the cell-mediated and humoral immune responses were found to be within normal limits in the control spleens, whereas in the carcinoma series both the T- and B-cell areas showed signs at cellular depletion. The results were interpreted, although with some preservation, to suggest that some degree of impairment of both the humoral and cell-mediated immunity exists in patients dying of far advanced urological malignancies.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology