Identification of breast cancer transcortin and its inhibitory role in cell-mediated immunity

Abstract

THE successful development and maintenance of a neoplastic malignancy is generally accepted to result from a temporary or lasting suppression of cell-mediated immune mechanisms. Many studies illustrate that whereas lymphocytes of a cancer patient are functionally sound, their participation in cell-mediated immune responses to an anti-genie neoplasm is abrogated by factors present in the plasma¹. Among such factors identified are certain plasma proteins whose concentrations are markedly higher in the plasma of the cancer patient². We have shown that the content of transcortin, the cortisol-binding protein of human plasma, is higher in patients with demonstrable cancer³, and since transcortin inhibits the response of human lymphocytes to phytohaemagglutinin⁴, a test generally accepted as demonstrative of active cell-mediated potential, we have attempted to study the relationship of such elevated levels of plasma transcortin to breast cancer.