Impaired production of interferon-alpha in whole-blood cultures from patients with renal cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the immune status of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) by estimating the production of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) in whole-blood cultures from these patients and from healthy subjects.


METHODS
Peripheral blood (2 mL) was collected from 30 untreated patients (23 men and seven women, mean age 59 years, range 35-78) with RCC and 30 healthy subjects (23 men and seven women, mean age 62 years). The patients with RCC comprised 17 with low-stage (stage I, II) and 13 patients with high-stage (stage III, IV) RCC. Sendai virus was added to the samples and incubated at 37 degrees C for 20 h, the supernatants collected and the activity of IFN-alpha determined by a conventional cytopathic-effect inhibition assay performed in microtitre plates with FL cells and challenged with vesicular stomatitis virus.


RESULTS
The production of IFN-alpha was suppressed significantly in patients with high-stage RCC compared with that in the control subjects (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference when compared to patients with low-stage RCC.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrated that the immune status of patients with high-stage RCC was impaired significantly and exogenous IFN-alpha therapy might be beneficial clinically for this group.
Kuo
J Y
JY
Department of Surgery, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan,
Kita
M
M
Imanishi
J
J
Yoshida
O
O
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D016898:Interferon-alpha; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins