Cytotoxic antibody responses in astrocytoma patients

Abstract

Early diagnosis of brain tumors may be facilitated by a microcytotoxicity assay which was used in this study to detect a humoral immune response against an allogeneic glioblastoma cell line. Of 82 serum samples from astrocytoma patients, 67 (82%) elicited significant cytotoxicity, while only 6 of 65 samples (9%) from normal blood-bank donors demonstrated a similar response. Positive results were more frequently obtained in lower-grade astrocytomas. Meningiomas, acoustic schwannomas, pituitary adenomas and metastatic tumors was positive in variable numbers of cases. A small series of serum samples were platelet-absorbed to insure that cytotoxicity was not merely due to histocompatibility antigens, and 7 of 8 samples, when retested on the target cell line, remained significantly positive. The assays were performed under strictly monitored conditions that afforded optimum reliability and minimal experimental variability. As the specificity of this test increases, it may lead to early detection of astrocytomas.