ABSTRACT
Tumor dormancy has been well recognized clinically but there is a paucity of experimental studies concerning this important aspect of host-tumor interaction. The experimental model is a difficult one to use for the study of dormancy because very few mice survive for the period of time needed to perform analysis of their dormant B Cell Lymphoma1 (BCL1), cells. Several observations that have helped to characterize the dormant tumor state in these mice: Mice progressively lose dormancy. The rate of loss is highest during the 60-80 days after BCL1 injection. Between 80 and 240 days, the rate of loss of dormancy appears to be relatively constant. This tentative conclusion must be confirmed by observing larger numbers of animals. Finally, if the human immune response to a particular neoplasm is not of sufficient magnitude to induce and maintain dormancy, it may be possible to provide such tumor-specific immune responsiveness to the recipient either passively or actively.
