The purpose of our study was to determine the efficacy of immunotherapy using human lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells against a human-lung squamous-cell carcinoma cell line (RERF-LC-AI) implanted into severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. A statistically significant growth suppressive effect on RERF-LC-AI implanted into SCID mice was observed when human LAK cells were administered into the caudal vein of the mice treated with a continuous supply (initiated prior to LAK cells injection) of rIL-2. The human LAK cells stained with PKH 2, a fluorescent dye, for later detection using flow cytometry were administered into the caudal vein of RERF-LC-AI bearing SCID mice; the cells persisted for 7 days in the implanted lung cancer tissue and in the mouse peripheral blood, but for 5 days in the mouse spleen. The number of infiltrated human LAK cells in each tissue increased dose-dependently with the number of injected cells. The results indicate that the antitumor effect most likely occurred during the early implantation period of the human LAK cells. These results demonstrate the applicability of this model to the in vivo study of human lung cancer therapy.

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