Analysis of serum lgG1 in patients with benign and malignant breast disease

The IgG1/G2 subclass shift – a sensitive, tissue non-specific marker for malignancy. Diagnostic performance with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

“…Experiments are presently under way to examine the hypothesis that malignant tumours may modulate the IgG subclass biosynthesis by the expression of certain cytokines and/or their soluble receptors, which are involved in IgG subclass regulation (Kawano et al, 1994). Whatever the mechanisms are, the regulation of IgG subclasses apparently is extremely sensitive to respective signals derived from malignant cells, which is reflected by the high sensitivity of the phenomenon, particularly for early stages of various tumours in humans (Kronberger et al, 1994;Schauenstein et al, 1996Schauenstein et al, , 1997 including SCC-HN (see present data), and in the rat model (Weblacher et al, 1993). An attractive feature of the IgG subclass shift as tumour marker are the extremely small variation ranges of the single values in normal controls and tumour patients, as compared with several orders of magnitude often observed with conventional tumour markers.…”

“…Patients afflicted with benign diseases (benign tumours or inflammations) of the tissues so far investigated sometimes showed a similar trend (Kronberger et al, 1994;Schauenstein et al, 1996;Schauenstein et al, 1997), but consistently differed from cancer patients with the same level of significance as did healthy controls. Even though our experience at present does not indicate any significant association of the IgG1/G2 shift with other common diseases, further studies are under way to examine this parameter in selected immunopathological conditions.…”

“…In previous reports it was shown that patients with malignant diseases of various tissue origin exhibit a characteristic and highly significant alteration in the subclass composition of serum IgG, consisting in a reduction in %IgG1 and an increase in %IgG2. This phenomenon has been reported in patients suffering from carcinomas of the female breast (Kronberger et al, 1994), various locations of the female reproductive tract (Schauenstein et al, 1996), and of the colo-rectal region (Schauenstein et al, 1997), and it turned out to exhibit diagnostic sensitivities and specificities comparable to, or -particularly at early tumour stages -far higher than conventional serological tumour markers. Patients with benign tumorous or inflammatory diseases of the respective organs differed in their mean %IgG1 and %IgG2 values from cancer patients with the same high significance as did healthy controls.…”

The tumor-associated shift in immunoglobulin G1/G2 is expressed at the messenger RNA level of peripheral blood B lymphocytes in patients with gynecologic malignancies

“…[3][4][5] Briefly, 300 L of fresh serum were applied to a column filled with Protein-A-Sepharose (Pharmacia). Components not bound to the gel were removed with phosphate citrate buffer, pH 7.…”

Selective decrease of serum immunoglobulin G1 as a marker of malignant transformation in colorectal tissue

“…The authors have previously reported a characteristic shift in the composition of IgG subclasses in close association with malignant tumors of various tissues, comprised of a selective decrease of %IgG1, with %IgG2 increasing and IgG3 and IgG4 remaining essentially unchanged 1, 2. Such a shift has been observed in more than 1000 patients with carcinomas of the mammary gland,3‐5 gynecologic malignancies of various locations,6, 7 and carcinoma of the prostate gland 3, 8. Organ‐matched benign diseases did not show comparable findings, nor was such a dysproteinemia observed in other nonmalignant diseases.…”