Circulating antibodies in malignant melanoma patients.

I.F. 0.882 Abstract: Sera from 46 patients with malignant melanoma (MM) in different clinical stages and from 25 healthy blood donors were studied by an indirect conventional immunofluorescent technique (IIT) and by an immunofluorescent complement-fixation test (ICFT). No specific and reliable serological reactivity could be demonstrated against autologous and homologous MM and other nonmalignant pigmented tissues. An increased incidence of diffused antinuclear (ANA; 41%) and cytoplasmic epidermal cell autoantibodies (A-CYT; 71%) was observed in the patients by IIT. Statistical evaluation of the results gave significant values in the chi 2 test in patients for ANA (chi 2 = 5.2061; p less than 0.05) and for A-CYT (chi 2 = 8.9176; p less than 0.01) versus age-matched controls. Thyroid microsomal, gastric parietal cell, smooth muscle and mitochondria autoantibodies were, respectively, detected in 4.3, 4.3, 4.3 and 0% of patients' sera.