Treatment of Children with Acute Leukemia by Passive Cyclic Immunization with Autoplasma and Autoleukocytes Operated During the Remission Period

The original premise of the recent study is the assumption that under usual conditions, the patient with acute leukemia is immunologically tolerant to his own leukemogenic agent. The antigenic specificity of the leukemogenic factor may change under the influence of drugs (6-mercaptopurine), thus bringing about the possibility of antigenic stimulation. In connection with this it is suggested that the onset of remission in acute leukemia occurs with the participation of humoral and cellular immunologic mechanisms.

We have demonstrated that during remission of acute leukemia, the use of cyclic passive immunization with autoplasma and autoleukocytes obtained at earlier stages of the first complete remission leads to a considerable prolongation of the remission periods.

Administration of plasma and leukocytes (obtained in the remission period) upon the onset of the acute phase is accompanied in some cases by a short-term effect which manifests itself in the improvement of subjective well-feeling, decreased pain, reduced size of lymph nodes, liver and spleen, and in reduction of the "blast" content of the bone marrow. Intracutaneous injection in the remission period of the extract from bone marrow and leukocytes obtained from patients in the acute phase of leukemia produces a positive skin reaction.