Immunologic Aspects of Malignant Renal Disease

Abstract

The biology of human renal cell carcinomas has long been considered to be influenced by the immune system of the tumor host Observations such as occasional spontaneous regression of metastases or their erratic growth and also their occasional late occurrence following nephrectomy were thought to be strong clinical arguments for this assumption. Ljunggren et al. (1959), reporting on a histologically proven spontaneous regression of lung metastases, have already suggested “antibody actions” as a possible explanation for such a phenomenon. Although these clinical findings are exceedingly rare and in many cases not substantiated by histology, there is definite proof that spontaneous regression of lung metastases rather than those of other organ sites occur in renal cell carcinoma.