Serum proteins in prostatic cancer. III. Relationship of levels of immunoglobulins and complement to clinical stage of disease.

The relationship between the level of the three major serum immunoglobulins, IgG, IgA, and IgM and of the third component of complement (C')C'3(B1A-globulin) and the clinical Stage of prostatic cancer was evaluated. While, statistically significant (P less than 0.05) differences in the levels of these proteins compared with their levels in patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (applied only to the study of C'3) and healthy adults were observed, the levels of these proteins in each of the Stages evaluated were not significantly different from each other. The absence of a correlation between the Stage of disease and the levels of these humorally mediated effectors of immunologic responsiveness is in keeping with observations of cell-mediated effectors of immunologic responsiveness in prostatic cancer patients. Observation of the association of prostatic cancer with a deficiency of B-cell function and of C'3 is noted.