[Immune profil in melanoma patients. III. Behavior of immunglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM) and of whole complement in serum at the beginning and during BCG-therapy (author's transl)].

The levels of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM) and of whole complement were measured in blood serum of 41 patients with malignant melanoma of clinical stage I to III after maximum tumour resection. In all three stages no differences to the normal could be obtained except for IgG demonstrating a rising tendency without statistic significance in patients of stage III. The level of whole complement was likewise normal in patients with the clinical stage I and II. A significant rise of the complement was observed in patients with clinical stage III in the last period of the disease. After one year of nonspecific active immunotherapy with BCG in patients of stages I and II no changes of immunoglobulins could be found. The whole complement showed a rising trend to the upper limit of the normal. The results were discussed in view of the present literature.