Copyright ©ERS Journals Ltd 2003 Extracts of lung cancer cells reveal antitumour antibodies in sera of patients with lung cancer1 Laboratory of Biomedicine, Dept of Cell Signalling, A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 2 Pulmonology Research Institute and 3 Laboratory of Immunochemistry, Institute of Carcinogenesis, N.N. Blokhin Cancer Research Centre, Moscow, Russia. 4 Klinik für Hämatologie, Onkologie und Immunologie, Klinikum der Philipps-Universität, 35033 Marburg, Germany CORRESPONDENCE: A.V. Bazhin, Laboratory of Biomedicine, Dept of Cell Signalling, A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. Fax: 70 959390978. E-mail: bazhin@belozersky.msu.ru Keywords: antitumour antibodies, small cell lung cancer, tumour markers
Received: June 5, 2002
This work was supported in part by grants from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (N° 00-04-48332).
The objective of the present study was to reveal antitumour antibodies in sera of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
The antibodies in sera of patients with SCLC and other tumours were detected by immunoblotting with whole extracts of SCLC cells as the antigen source. Sera of patients with various pulmonological disorders, irradiated during the liquidation of consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant incident (a high-risk group in lung cancer), were also analysed.
The present authors' found that SCLC sera contain a set (pattern) of antitumour antibodies which are rarely detected in sera of patients with cancers different from SCLC and very rarely, if ever, present in sera of healthy individuals. The sensitivity and the specificity of the pattern are equal to 80% and 91%, correspondingly. In the high-risk group in lung cancer, the frequencies of the antibodies are somewhat lower than the corresponding values in SCLC sera, but significantly larger than those in healthy sera.
The findings of the present study create a basis for clinical application of the antitumour antibodies described.
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