Low natural-killer-cell activity in familial melanoma patients and their relatives

Abstract

Summary.-Patients with melanoma who had one or more close relatives with melanoma were studied for their natural-killer-cell (NK) activity against cultured melanoma cells and Chang cells. A high proportion of the patients and their relatives were found to have low NK activity against these target cells. In most of the patients this could not be attributed to general depression of their immune function, since Band T-cell numbers and the mitogenic response to PHA were within normal limits. The levels of NK activity of the patients and their relatives were found to be significantly correlated, suggesting that the NK activity in these families may have been genetically (or environmentally) determined. Several genetic markers were examined in the patients and their relatives for association with the disease state and NK activity. No association with HLA antigens or ABO blood groups was detected, but there was a low incidence of the Rhesus negative phenotype in the patients (the Rh phenotype had previously been associated with high NK activity).The present results indicate that NK activity has a familial association in families with a high incidence of melanoma, and raise the question whether low NK activity may be one of the predisposing factors in the development of familial melanoma.

Familial cancer: depressed NK-cell cytotoxicity in healthy and cancer affected members

“…While such study 9 cannot suggest whether the depressed immunity level was secondary to onset of primary brain tumors, or precede it, now this family investigation does indicate that the low immune values can antedate the effect of disease progression and perhaps where involved in the etiological process. NK cell function has been studied in unaffected first-degree relatives of cancer patients in the past 5,6,11 and our results are in agreement with those reports. However, these works studied breast or melanoma patients and their relatives 4,5,11 .…”

“…NK cell function has been studied in unaffected first-degree relatives of cancer patients in the past 5,6,11 and our results are in agreement with those reports. However, these works studied breast or melanoma patients and their relatives 4,5,11 . Besides, these familial cancer studies have been employing the chromium release assay, to detect NK cell cytotoxicity against the target cell.…”

Second primary cancers in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma: a population-based study in Sweden

“…The highest SIR was found for second primary malignant melanomas (SIR = 9.24). Simarly, Tucker and collaborators found in patients with melanoma a relative risk of 8.5 to develop a second primary malignant melanoma (Tucker et al, 1985a (Hersey et al, 1979). An increased risk of malignant melanoma has been documented in patients receiving immunosuppressive treatment, such as renal transplant recipients (Greene et al, 1981) and also in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (Greene et al, 1978;Travis et al, 1992), Hodgkin's disease (Tucker et al, 1985b;van Leeuwen et al, 1994) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (Travis et al, 1991(Travis et al, , 1993.…”

Natural killer (NK) activity in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with benign and malignant breast disease

“…Cytotoxicity occurs largely independently of antibody (Trinchieri et al, 1978), is potentiated by interferon (Einhorn et al, 1978;Moore & Potter, 1980) and is claimed to be of significance in surveillance against spontaneously arising tumours in man (Hersey et al, 1979) and animals (Kiessling & Wigzell, 1979). Indeed, in animal models the genetically determined level of NK activity influences both the growth rate of tumour implants (Kiessling & Wigzell, 1979) and outgrowth of experimental metastases (Hanna, 1980).…”