Clinical utility and monitoring of breast cancer by circulating immune complexes.

Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were estimated in 22 patients of breast carcinoma, 25 healthy control volunteers and 10 follow-up cases after mastectomy by polyethylene glycol precipitation (PEG pptn) test and Latex agglutination inhibition (LAI) test. CIC levels increased with advancing stage of breast carcinoma. Significant increase in CIC levels was observed in stage II (p < 0.01), followed by highly significant increase in stage III and IV (p < 0.01) as compared to the control group. Sharp decrease in CIC levels was observed three months after radical surgery in 9 post-operative patients. One patient remained seropositive by both tests, followed by a fatal outcome after four months follow-up. Seropositivity for CIC by PEG pptn test in patients of breast carcinoma was 72.72 percent as compared to 81.81 percent by LAI test. Combination of both tests increased total CIC positivity by 90.9 percent. Clinical utility and prognostic significance of CIC in monitoring breast carcinoma patients has been demonstrated by our study.