1. Of immunological phenomena of malignant tumors, I have obseved, by satisfactorily exact experimental methods, the following six cases: immunity in re-transplantation, effects of tumor vaccine, passive immunity, agglutination, precipitation, and cutaneous reaction; and found it clear that antibodies to tumor cells are produced by transplanting tumor cells. Production of antibodies was increased to some degree along with the propagation of tumors, but the productivity was not so strong as seen in the bacteriological field. The most distinctive fact I noticed was the agglutination of tumor cells.
Eaton (15), who tested agglutination of Plasmodium knowlesi by immune serum from chronically infected and superinfected monkeys, reported that the titers of agglutination were given at dilutions of only 1:16 to 1:64± in the acute stages and at dilutions of 1:256 to 1:1, 024± in the chronic stages or after some ten infections of this disease were received.
Agglutinin that operates upon tumor cells is also found, in a small amount (about 1:25), even in normal animals. This gradually increases (1:200) with tumor cells implanted, but not so by the sensitization with other cells, for instance, liver cells or red cells. Therefore I may safely say that this phenmenon is specially confined to tumor cells.
Tumor vaccine forms a subject of interesting study. Successive inoculations of this vaccine were carried out in diverse ways before and after the transplantation of tumors, but the growth of tumors could not be restrained.
In regard to the effects of serum of cured animals, Takeda (16) and his cooperators reported that they transplanted Yoshida Sarcoma in successive generations of white rats of Wister-strain and with 0.5cc of serum from these spontaneously cured animals they were successful in completely preventing tumors from proliferation.
In my experiments serum from cured animals proved effective to some degree in retarding the proliferation of implanted tumors, but not so powerfully as to hinder it.
2. I investigated a cutaneous reaction which was considered as neutralizing phenomenon of tumor toxin.
Recently considerable attention has been paid to such reactions (17) as diagnostic methods of cancer and these methods have a much higher positivity as compared with other means of diagnosis. My method of reaction can be said to be a new one as to obtaining an antigen. Certainly this reaction was produced sooner than several other diagnostic methods I tried, but could not be expected in the early period after transplantation. In other words, even such a reaction requires a certain time in letting the body respond to it. Here lies difficulty of diagnosis of cancer. On the other hand, however, there is a fact that blood sugar increases in amounts describing a certain curve in the early stage after transplantation. With this fact into consideration the decision of positivity may be hastened by judging from cutaneous reaction and blood sugar titer together. That is, in the early period in case the blood sugar titer is high, the cutaneous reaction may safely be judged as certain positive, even though it may by itself be apparently uncertain positive.
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