A series of immune parameters were available covering the period before, during, and after
tumor appearance in ten patients who developed
tumors after
renal transplantation. Results were obtained using
monoclonal antibodies OKT3, OKT4, OKT8, and the ratio OKT4/OKT8, and surface membrane fluorescence microscopy (SMIg) for B-lymphocytes, E-rosetting and blast transformation. A much lower immune responder state was indicated at the time of
transplantation in patients who later developed a
tumor, as compared to a control group, and a much lower immune responder state was seen before than after
tumor appearance. A low OKT4/OKT8 ratio was found before the diagnosis of
Hodgkin's disease in one patient, and an increase in the immune responder state was seen
after treatment of a patient developing spinocellular
carcinoma at the site of a former
herpes labialis. Using a
monoclonal antibody against Hodgkin and Sternberg-Reed cells (Ki-1), it was possible to demonstrate that these were present before
transplantation, with an increase before the appearance of the first clinical symptoms and, perhaps activated by the
transplantation and the following immunosuppression, in the patient who developed
Hodgkin's disease.