Long-term follow-up studies on herpes simplex antibodies in the course of cervical cancer: patterns of neutralizing antibodies.

The kinetics of neutralization was used to study antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 in 90 patients with invasive carcinoma of the cervix uteri. The first sera were drawn before treatment and consective sera were drawn at intervals thereafter. Control groups consisted of 90 age-matched healthy women and 70 cancer patients suffering from malignancies other than cervix carcinoma. Patients surviving during the observation period of 12-60 months had a significantly higher frequency of neutralizing antibodies than control groups. Twenty-six of the women with cervix carcinoma died during the observation period and 13 others had a recurrence of the cancer. Survivors with advanced cervical cancer had higher antibody titers than survivors with less severe cervical cancer while patients whose cancer caused death had low titer or to a great extent lacked neutralizing antibodies. Women with recurrences and progressing cervical lesions had no detectable antibodies while women with recurrences and regressing lesions all had antibodies. There was a rise in K2-values 6-18 months after treatment. In serum samples collected later than 18 months, there was a return to original levels.