Certain aspects of analysis of complement dependent antibody in breast cancer patients.

Specific anti-breast cancer complement dependent antibody (CDA) was sequentially determined in the sera of patients before and after mastectomy or during progressive recurrent breast cancer. Several observations were made. (1) There appears to be a different pattern of antigenic cross-reactivity detected by cancer patients' anti-tumor CDA than by their anti-tumor cell-mediated immunity; the former being broader than the latter. (2) Patients can be classified into three categories: those with persistent anti-tumor CDA pre- and post-mastectomy; those with detectable CDA post-mastectomy but not pre-mastectomy; and those with only occasionally detectable CDA. (3) Some sera obtained from patients with clinically evident tumor inhibited anti-tumor CDA found in the sera of other cancer patients. The significance of these results are discussed.