A clinical assessment of fluorescence polarisation changes in lymphocytes stimulated by phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in malignant and benign diseases.

The modified double-zone SCM technique, developed in these laboratories as an in vitro test for cancer, is based on the differential response to PHA of lymphocytes harvested from two regions of a Ficoll-Triosil gradient. Lymphocyte responses are measured by changes in intracellular fluorescein fluorescence polarisation. We report its continued clinical evaluation in patients hospitalised with malignant and non-malignant diseases, including a blind trial of 78 patients with disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, breast and lung. Overall "false' negative and "false' positive rates from 336 blood samples were 1.8 and 3.3% respectively.