[The influence of humoral immune mechanisms on metastasizing tumors in humans (author's transl)].

Long-continued stimulation of the immune system by chronic infections or tumors leads to dysfunction of the immunoregulation. Different types of antibody, anti-antibody and immunocomplex point to the fact that it is not a matter of the weakening of the patient's immune defense but that these antibodies are important regulating mechanisms for the immune system. While antibodies directed against a tumor have a useful function for the patient with dissemination of metastasizing tumors, the anti-antibodies and antigenotypic antibodies represent a counterregulation which, in the advanced stage of the disease, eliminates the initial control.