FREUND KAMINER REACTION 21 J 



Further experiments proved that a certain degree of resistance in an animal 

 may be attained by the injection of various cells, be they embryonal tissue 

 elements or simply red blood cells. 



Naturally all the known bacteriological methods for the destruction of 

 bacteria have been applied to tumor cells; for example the addition of dis- 

 infectants, or the application of heat. Passive immunization with the 

 serum from animals in whom the tumors disappeared spontaneously, or 

 from rabbits treated for a long time with increasing quantities of an 

 emulsion of carcinoma cells, also gave only doubtful results even though 

 at times the experiments seemed encouraging. While it seems probable 

 that the growth of neoplasms is attended by processes of immunity, one 

 cannot directly compare this with the bacterial or proteid form of immunity 

 and expect the same antibodies as given by the latter. In fact, all attempts 

 at a serum diagnosis for carcinoma or sarcoma by the methods of precipita- 

 tion or complement fixation have failed to withstand careful criticism. The 

 reactions to be discussed will, however, tend to show that the sera of car- 

 cinoma patients possess certain characteristics which may play an impor- 

 tant role in the future development of this problem. 



"Brieger's cachexia reaction" has been reviewed in the chapter on anti- 

 ferments. This test demonstrates that in a certain number of carcinoma 

 patients the serum contains greater amounts of antitrypsin than normal 

 sera. Similarly, many carcinoma sera have a stronger than normal 

 hemolysin for the erythrocytes of the same or different animal species (iso- 

 and heterolysins). Here too the results are inconstant and the sera of 

 many noncarcinoma patients, especially tuberculous, give similar reac- 

 tions. The same may be said of the test based upon the hemolysis of 

 the carcinoma patients' red blood cells by cobra venom. 



The Freund Kaminer Reaction. 



Freund and Kaminer found that if normal serum is mixed with an emul- 

 sion of carcinoma cells and allowed to remain at 40 C. for 24 hours, the 

 latter are broken up and dissolved. This does not occur if the serum 

 is derived from a carcinoma patient. The destruction of cells is deter- 

 mined by counting them in the Zeiss Thoma blood chamber both before 

 and after the 24 hours' incubation; or one may take the clearing up of the 

 turbid cell emulsion as an evidence of the cell destruction. 



The technique of the reaction is as follows : 



Carcinoma tissue rich in cellular elements and not degenerated is excised as soon 

 after death as possible, cut up into small pieces and placed into five times as much of a 

 i per cent, solution of sodium diphosphate. The whole is pressed through gauze and 

 allowed to stand until the cells have sunk to the bottom, after which they are washed 

 in 0.6 per cent, salt solution. They are again allowed to settle and then mixed with 



