Abstract
IN 1954 it was suggested by Green1 that normal cells contain an antigen which is absent from tumour cells, and that, in the presence of an ‘auto-immune’ reaction in which carcinogenic substances behave as haptenes, the tumour cells have a selective survival advantage. Loss of tissue-specific antigen has been demonstrated in the cells of experimental tumours of hamster kidney2,3 and rat liver2,3, and spontaneous tumours of humanskin3 and gastro-intestinal tract4 by the use of heterologous antibodies. Recently it has been shown that some cells of most tumours of the human thyroid appear to be deficient in a thyroid-specific auto-antigen which is present in the epithelial cells of normal and hyperplastic thyroids; primary explants of thyroid cells in tissue culture were used and the antigenicity of the cells was demonstrated by their susceptibility to the cytotoxic effects of a naturally occurring thyroid-specific auto-antibody6 frequently found in the serum of patients with chronic thyroiditis.
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GOUDIE, R. Auto-immune Selection of Carcinoma Cells in Man. Nature 197, 1020 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/1971020a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1971020a0
