Immune complexes associated with brain tumors: correlation with prognosis.

The presence of circulating immune complexes in the sera of 208 patients with intracranial space occupying lesions was assayed using the C1 q binding test. Twenty-eight percent of 96 high grade glioma patients had immune complexes as compared to 14% of 28 low grade glioma patients. The incidence of immune complexes was found to decrease in the first post-operative month. The presence of immune complexes correlated with shorter survival in a group of malignant glioma patients tested preoperatively. Nineteen patients without immune complexes had a mean survival of 8.6 months as compared to 13 patients with immune complexes who had a mean survival of 4.7 months. These results confirm similar observations in other types of malignancies.