Evaluation of immunological reactivity on the basis of spleen white pulp morphology in patients with far advanced urological malignancy.

The histological alterations in the white pulp of the spleens collected from sixty-one patients who had died of widespread urological carcinomas were assessed by using a standardized reporting system previously introduced by the author. As a control material the same number of age, and sex-matched patients who had died on myocardial infarction without signs of any malignancy was used. Special attention was focused on the evaluation of the lymphocyte populations (T- and B-cell areas) responsible for the immunological reactivity of the host. Morphological characteristics suggesting to reflect the activity of both the cell-mediated and humoral immune responses were found to be within normal limits in the control spleens, whereas in the carcinoma series both the T- and B-cell areas showed signs at cellular depletion. The results were interpreted, although with some preservation, to suggest that some degree of impairment of both the humoral and cell-mediated immunity exists in patients dying of far advanced urological malignancies.