The authors' goal was to evaluate the impacts of patients' bone marrow transplant (BMT) on their spouse/partner's (subjects) psychological and immunological status at four key points in the course of their transplant. Subjects' (N = 24) psychological and immunological status was prospectively evaluated at four key points in the patient's BMT which included: at patients' admission to hospital and 0-, 20-, and 34-day intervals after BMT infusion. Psychological variables examined included: a) general psychological distress and negative affect; b) tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner; c) state negative affect; and d) coping style, specifically if escape-avoidance coping was used. Immune variables examined included: percentages of total T cells and of CD4+, CD8+ cells, B cells, and natural killer (NK) cells, and NK cytotoxicity. Greatest abnormality in immune variables was detected before the initiation of BMT (i.e., between admission and day 0) with normalization between days 21 and 34 thereafter. During the waiting period before BMT, the subjects had the highest scores on negative affects, escape-avoidance coping, and psychological symptoms. These progressively declined after the BMT procedure. Significant correlations were found among trait anxiety, escape-avoidance coping, and total percentage of T cells and of CD4+ cells. Escape-avoidance coping was reliably correlated with percentage of B cells. The greatest psychological and immunological impacts on spouse/partners of BMT patients were found in the period directly after hospital admission and before BMT infusion. Alterations in immune values occurred in anticipation of BMT in the spouse/partners. Psychological symptoms followed this same pattern, being most elevated before BMT and decreasing in the successive evaluations post-BMT for the spouse/partners. The most significant and consistent psychological variable in predicting immune changes was escape-avoidance coping, with less escape-avoidance coping predicting better immune functioning.

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Because of recent questions concerning the sensitivity of human tumor cells to neutrophil-induced oxidative injury, we studied six freshly obtained human ovarian cancer (OC) specimens. Stimulation of neutrophils (PMNs) by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) did not result in OC cytolysis during the first nine hours of incubation. However, three of six specimens were significantly lysed by stimulated PMNs when assay length was increased to 18 hours. Cytotoxicity was mediated by PMN production of reactive oxidative intermediates (ROIs). Presentation of ROIs to OC targets as preformed or enzymatically generated molecules in cell-free systems duplicated the enhanced lysis at 18 hours (as compared with six hours). Since addition of catalase at three or six hours did not inhibit enhanced lysis at 18 hours (achieved by PMNs or in cell-free systems), it appears that an initial ROI-mediated lethal event occurs early, but longer incubations are required for the event to become manifested as cell death. These data suggest that shorter assays may underestimate the potential of PMNs as effector cells against human tumor cells.