Lymphocyte supernatants and the electrophoretic mobility of erythrocytes: further experience of cancer diagnosis.

A double-blind trial of the tanned-erythrocyte electrophoretic mobility test for cancer has been carried out. This included 70 normal subjects as controls, 61 subjects with disease other than cancer, and 229 cancer patients. Slowing values generally increased in the order given, with certain diseases having values within the range positive for cancer. Exposure to viral infection also tended to produce false positives. Slowing values above 50%, however, appear to be definitely associated with cancer. For the middle range of slowing values (25-50%) there is some overlap between the 3 groups, so that a statistical probability of the presence of malignancy is available from the test. With slowing values below 25% there is little likelhood of cancer. Tumour type influences the test result, as does, to a lesser extent, tumour bulk.