Tumor-reactive IgE antibodies in plasma of patients with gastrointestinal carcinomas.

A total of 208 plasma samples from 115 patients with gastrointestinal carcinomas and nine patients with other intestinal disease were examined for the presence of IgE tumor antibodies by a solid-phase radioimmunoassay. Approximately one-third of the patients gave significant reactions with gastrointestinal carcinoma extracts compared with normal tissue extracts. Absorption with tumor and normal tissue extracts, with type AB human red cells, and with CEA indicated tumor specificity in some of the samples so examined. None of the 50 serum samples tested from normal blood donors contained tumor-specific IgE. IgE tumor antibodies decreased or completely disappeared in the majority of patients 8-13 days after surgical treatment.