Immunoprofile studies for patients with bronchogenic carcinoma—III Multivariate analysis of immune tests in correlation with survival

Immunoprofile studies consisting of the measurement of de novo sensitization with DNCB, skin testing with microbial antigens, WBC and differential blood cell counts, enumeration of peripheral blood T and B lymphocytes and stimulation of lymphocytes with the plant mitogens PHA, Con A, and PWM were performed prior to irradiation therapy for 141 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma. The data from these studies were examined, with the addition of the variables stage of disease, histologic type of tumor, age and sex, by multivariate analysis for correlation with survival. Although stage of disease was shown to be a significant factor in the survival of these patients, the results of this analysis indicate that significant additional information relative to survival may be obtained from the measurement of: (1) patients' response to DNCB; (2) response to skin test antigens; and (3) the proportion of peripheral T lymphocytes. There was little gain in survival forecasting efficiency with the addition of the remaining variables.