ABSTRACT
The apparently "unregulated" behavior of tumor cells suggests that they are unable to perceive the modulating influences by which the body controls the behavior of normal cells. The autologous immune responses of patients to their own tumors should, in theory, lead to the highest degree of tumor specificity because of the innate self-tolerance exhibited by the immune system. The opportunity to study the immune responses of patients to allogeneic tumors is available mainly because of the attempts that have been made to treat patients with extracts of tumors, or irradiated- or virus-disrupted tumor or tissue culture cells. The identification of tumor antigens by xenoantisera is complicated by the vastly greater number of normal antigens which can be expected to be immunogenic in this situation. A hybridoma secreting a monoclonal antibody reactive with cortical thymocytes was established from the spleen of a BALB/c mouse immunized with human thymus cells.
