Tumor-associated antigen immune complexes. A potential marker of recurrent melanoma
J. H. Wong, S. H. Xu, R. K. Gupta and D. L. Morton
John Wayne Cancer Clinic, Armand Hammer Laboratories, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA School of Medicine 90024.
To determine the potential utility of antigen-specific immune complex
analysis, we developed a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
utilizing polyclonal human antibody to detect tumor-associated
antigen-specific immune complexes. Sera from 10 normal volunteers and 19
patients with recurrent melanoma were studied. Patients with recurrent
melanoma had a mean +/- SD percent inhibition of 27.6% +/- 29.8% in
contrast to normal individuals with a mean value of 8.4% +/- 17.8%. A
monoclonal antibody (MAb JSI) was developed following immunization with a
partially purified antigen. Utilizing MAb JSI, we developed a "sandwich"
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and studied sera from 45 normal
volunteers and 44 patients with cancer with recurrent melanoma. Results
were expressed as a percent maximum binding of a positive control. The mean
+/- SD percent maximum binding for normal subjects was 4.9% +/- 7.7% in
contrast to sera from patients with melanoma who had a mean of 38.3% +/-
33.3%. Serial analysis of four patients with melanoma with tumor-associated
antigen-specific immune complexes demonstrated the presence of
tumor-associated antigen-specific immune complexes up to 12 years prior to
clinical recurrence.
