Circulating immune complexes in patients with lymphomas and leukemias.

Immune complexes (IC) were examined in the sera of 100 patients with histologically confirmed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 80 leukemic patients by the EA-rosette forming cell inhibition assay. Sera from 55 healthy controls were also tested for the presence of IC. Using 9% rosette inhibition as a base-line, IC were observed to be present in 66 out of 100 sera from patients with NHL (66%), 35 out of 80 sera from patients with leukemia (43.7%) and 10 out of 55 control subjects (18%, p less than 0.001). The percentage of positive results was significantly lower in NHL patients with favorable prognosis (45%) than in patients with unfavorable prognosis (80%). IC from the sera of 7 ALL and 6 CML patients were investigated before chemotherapy, in remission and at relapse. The mean inhibitory rate of rosette inhibition was significantly higher in patients during the blastic stage of leukemia than during the complete remission (12.5%), and later it became higher again at the time of relapse. In CML patients, the previously normal serum rosette inhibition activity increased during the blastic crisis. These observations indicate that the follow-up studies of such patients may determine their prognosis accurately.