*Department of Developmental Therapeutics The University of Texas at Houston
M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute Houston, Texas 77025
# Biology Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830

1 Supported by Contract NIH-NCI-E-72-3262 from the Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Abstract

Twenty patients were immunized with formalin-killed Rauscher leukemia virus. No untoward side effects were observed. Approximately three-fourths of the patients developed cell-mediated immunity as assessed by in vitro lymphocyte blastogenic responses. Approximately two-thirds of the patients developed antibody responses .as measured by radio-immunoprecipitation, and one-half of the patients developed delayed hypersensitivity to the immunizing antigen. The responses illicited were specific for the immunizing viral antigen because little or no response was illicited in vitro among the immunized patients' lymphocytes to virus-free tissue culture vehicle. The immune response to the viral antigens was also evaluated by lymphocyte stimulation with solubilized from transformed cells. These data suggest that human subjects (patients with metastatic cancer and acute leukemia) can mount immune responses to oncogenic viruses of both humoral and cell-mediated immunity.