High levels of circulating soluble receptors for tumor necrosis factor in hairy cell leukemia and type B chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The presence of soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) binding proteins (BP) was investigated in the sera of healthy volunteer blood donors and cancer patients. Two distinct types of TNFBP, types A and B, which are immunologically related to the cellular 75-kD TNF receptor (TNFR) and the cellular 55-kD TNFR, respectively, were assessed by immunoassays using nonblocking anti-receptor antibodies and 125I-recombinant human TNF alpha. As compared to the titers observed in 25 healthy controls, TNFBP types A and B titers were found to be elevated in almost all sera obtained from patients with underlying malignant disease. The highest amounts of TNFBP were seen in the sera of patients with B cell malignancies including hairy cell leukemia (HCL) and type B chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Treatment of HCL patients with recombinant human interferon-alpha was associated with decrease of circulating TNFBP.