Approaches to the study of tumor antigens and tumor immunity in malignant melanoma

It has been known for six years that malignant melanoma is immunogenic in the tumor bearing patient, and initiates both a cell mediated and humoral immune response. Antibody to melanoma has been demonstrated by immunofluorescence, complement fixation, and cytotoxicity. Cell mediated immunity has been demonstrated by cytotoxicity, both against fresh tumor cells or cultured tumor cell lines. Recently, some evidence has been generated that suggests that the cytotoxicity may be nonspecific in that normal individuals show as much or more cytotoxicity towards melanoma cell lines as patients with melanoma. Most studies of tumor immunity in malignant melanoma utilized various types of antibody titers and measurement of cell mediated cytotoxicity, using either colony inhibition or chromium release techniques. During the last several years, the authors have taken several new approaches to studying tumor immunity and tumor immunobiology in malignant melanoma. The results of some of these approaches are detailed in this paper.