[Pre- and postoperative reactivity of breast cancer patients to tumor associated antigens and HEP in the macrophage electrophoresis mobility (MEM) test].

27 female patients with breast cancer and 23 with benign breast diseases have been investigated with the MEM-test. Antigens used in these experiments were human encephalitogenic protein (HEP) and 3M KC1 tissue extracts from carcinomas of breast and kidney. Preoperative examination of the patients showed an accuracy of the test of 89% (breast cancer extract) and 86% (HEP) respectively. The control persons gave less than 9% false positive tests. The results obtained with the extract from kidney cancer demonstrate the organ specificity (3% positive responses). Follow-up studies were carried out with cancer patients. We found, beginning with a delay, a strong decrease of reactivity 5 to 8 weeks after surgical treatment and later again increased reactivity in some patients. We suppose a relation between this restoration of MEM-reactivity and development of recurrent cancer whereby follow-up studies can get some clinical importance. The investigation of frequency distribution of MEM values obtained shows a division into low values of about 0% and high values of about 10% mobility inhibition without overlapping. The reasons are discussed regarding the levels of the patient and the test principle.