Implications of humoral antibody in mice and humans to breast tumor and mouse mammary tumor virus-associated antigens.

As a part of a program directed toward the elucidation of the role of viruses in mouse and human breast cancer, a variety of immunological techniques were applied to a study of the humoral immune response of mice and of humans to their breast tumors. Tumor-bearing mice were found to produce antibodies against a complex array of tumor cell-associated antigens, including mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV), components, heterophile and Forssman-like antigens, embryonic antigens, and possibly other tumor-associated antigens. Mice bearing MMTV-positive tumors had high titer antibodies against both viral and heterophile antigens. Tumor-free mice, whether of high or low mammary cancer strains, were remarkably free of antibodies that could label MMTV particles, although some sera contained antibodies to viral components. Patients with breast cancer also had antibodies against a variety of antigens associated with their own and homologous breast cancer cells. These antibodies reacted with heterophile, embryonic, and other tumor-associated antigens, some of which appeared to be viral. Sera of some patients with breast cancer gave positive immunofluorescence reactions with mouse mammary tumor cells grown in tissue culture and producing MMTV. Most of these reactions were due to heterophile antibodies in the sera, but a small number of sera contained antibodies apparently directed specifically toward MMTV particles, as determined by immunoperoxidase electron microscopy. Although human-mouse cross-reactions must be interpreted with caution, these data suggest that a virus putatively associated with human breast cancer is antigenically related to MMTV.