[Detection and clinical significance of immune complexes in the sera of brain tumor patients].

Levels of circulating immune complexes (IC) in the sera of 87 patients with brain tumor were measured by Raji cell radioimmunoassay and Clq binding assay. The control samples were obtained from 40 healthy blood donors and 40 cerebrovascular patients. The patients with glial tumor had a high incidence of elevated level of IC than patients with non-glial benign tumor, elevated level of IC than patients with non-glial benign tumor, cerebrovascular disease and normal controls. There was a significant association between these Clq binding activity and Raji cell binding activity in the sera of glial tumor patients. As regards the sensitivity, high IC levels are more frequent among Raji cell assay than Clq binding assay. The level of IC was found to be higher in patients with recurrent glial tumor than in those with primary tumors. However, the level of IC in the sera from patients with glial tumor did not always decrease during remission after successful treatment. Our data indicate that the measurement of IC may prove useful in the management of patients with brain tumor, in particular, to detect recurrence or progression of tumor growth.