Preoperative cell-mediated immune function and the prognosis of patients with gastric carcinoma. The cell-mediated immune function of 83 patients with gastric carcinoma was assessed preoperatively and the results were compared to that of 52 patients with benign lesions. The data were subjected to an analysis in order to evaluate their prognostic significance. The abilities to induce allogeneic cytotoxicity and to produce interleukin 2 (IL2) in patients with stage IV carcinoma were significantly depressed, as compared to those in patients with benign lesions, whereas natural killer (NK) cell activity was not significantly impaired. There was no significant correlation among these immune functions. When the patients were stratified into two groups, those who had high (greater than the mean value in patients with benign lesions) and low (less than the same value) values of these immune reactivities, the survival of patients with high NK activity (greater than or equal to 43%) was significantly better, as compared to that of patients with low cytotoxicity (less than 43%). However, there was no correlation between the survival and allogeneic cytotoxicity in these patients. The high ability to produce IL2 (greater than or equal to 1.3 U/ml) correlated with the better survival in the patients, but not in the group of patients who underwent curative resection. 