Evaluation of the role of prostatic acid phosphatase in tumour-associated immunity in prostatic cancer

Initial investigation of the contributory role of prostatic acid phosphatase to cell-mediated tumour-associated immunity in patients with prostatic cancer was evaluated by leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI). The absence of significant reactivity of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from patients with varying stages of prostatic cancer, receiving treatment at the time of their evaluation, to a homogeneous preparation of human prostatic acid phosphatase compared to that obtained with an allogeneic extract of pooled malignant prostate suggests that: prostatic cancer patients' PBL are not sufficiently sensitized in vivo to prostatic acid phosphatase to manifest in vitro reactivity, at least as evaluated by LAI and (or) that prostatic acid phosphatase alone does not appear to be the principal immunoreactive component of presumptively identified prostatic tumour-associated antigens.