A prospective study of circulating immune complexes in patients with breast cancer

✍ Scribed by A. Bukh; M. T. Aguado; N. Krarup; H. S. Poulsen; A. M. Nordentoft; N. P. H. Moller

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 795 KB
• Volume: 41
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910410308

✦ Synopsis

Levels of circulating immune complex (clC) and complement split product C3d were studied in 86 patients with breast cancer (BC), 22 patients with benign breast disease (BD), and 72 age-and sex-matched blood-bank donors (NC), using solidphase Clq-protein A RIA, C I q-anti-lgG RIA, anti-C3d anti-lgG RIA, and polyclonal IgM-rheumatoid factor ELlSA for clC detection. No significant differences in clC and C3d levels were found between the groups. The incidence of raised cIC levels varied from 4.9 to 8.2% in the BC group and from 4.5 to 22.7% in the BD group in comparison with 2.9 to 3.0% in the N C group. Using the solid-phase polyclonal IgM-rheumatoid factor ELISA we found that the clC levels of patients with stage-Ill cancer were significantly higher than those of patients with stage-l or stage-ll cancer. However, the other tests showed no relationship to tumor burden. Likewise, an effect of mastectomy on the clC levels was also only detectable by one of the assays, i.e., the post-mastectomy levels of clC as measured by the solid-phase anti-C3d anti-IgG RIA were significantly lower than the pre-mastectomy levels. Serial analyses of clC and C3d levels were performed pre-operatively. one month post-operatively and every 3 months during the first year after mastectomy in 46 of the patients. During a Iyear observation period, 7 patients developed metastatic disease. The occurrence of metastatic disease was not, however, preceded by characteristic changes in serially determined clC and C3d levels.