Chemical immunosuppression and human cancer

Abstract

A significant advance in our understanding of cancer is the realization that states of immunodeficiency are associated with an increased incidence of malignancies. Malignant cells have been inadvertently transplanted with homografts obtained from donors with cancer. In the immunosuppressed host such cells have survived, multiplied, and spread. In addition, organ homograft recipients have shown a 5.6% incidence of de novo malignancies at some time after transplantation. Organ transplant recipients who had pre‐existing malignancies removed developed recurrences or metastases of the original neoplasms in 41% of cases. Malignancies have also been observed in nontransplant patients treated for a variety of disorders. Cancer chemotherapeutic agents have immunosuppressive side effects; patients have manifested new malignancies while their original tumors were controlled by the antineoplastic drugs. The danger of malignancy makes it imperative that immunosuppressive therapy should only be used when strongly indicated, as in organ transplantation, or where other forms of therapy have failed to control the patient's disease. The use of the appropriate cancer themotherapeutic agents in patients with advanced malignancies is fully justified, as the risk of development of new tumors is far outweighed by the months or years of control of the original neoplasms. Chemotherapy, as an adjuvant to radiotherapy or surgery in the management of localized cancers, should be used with caution as it has yielded disappointing results in many series.

Incidence and risk factors of cancer among men and women in Norwegian agriculture

“…It is interesting that lip cancer has been associated with dairy farming in New Zealand (46) and that a viral origin has been suggested (45). Like many other farm-related cancers (4), lip cancer can be considered immune-related, and the risk is strongly increased among immunosuppressed patients (47,48).…”

The immune microenvironment in Hodgkin lymphoma: T cells, B cells, and immune checkpoints

“…T cells are thought to suppress the development and growth of lymphomas; the increased incidence of lymphomas in patients receiving long-term immunosuppressants as well as immunodeficient mice supports this hypothesis. [6][7][8] The presence of multiple tumor-infiltrating T cells "rosetting," but failing to eliminate, malignant RS cells has been well-described in CHL and is highly suggestive of an ineffectual T cell response in this disease. 9,10 This has been complemented by the demonstration of impaired proliferative responses to mitogenic stimuli in peripheral blood lymphocytes isolated from CHL patients.…”

Immune Suppression as Related to Toxicology

“…158−160 The etiology of the autoimmune disease after thymectomy may be directly linked with a defective immune surveillance or indirectly linked with a decreased resistance to infection and, as a consequence, the production of antibodies which cross react with antigen of the host. Several recent studies deal with defective immunological responsiveness and the development of lymphoreticular malignancies in man (reviewed by Penn 161 and by Kriiger 162 ). This relationship between immune suppression and carcinogenesis is certainly not a direct one.…”