Clinical significance of antibodies to ovarian antigens; association with cancer of the genito-urinary tract.

Serum from 491 patients with cancer and from 151 patients of comparable age without recognized cancer was tested by indirect immunofluorescence for antibodies to ovarian antigens. Circulating antibody to the cytoplasm of rabbit ova was found in from 19 to 47% of patients with cancer of the ovary, endometrium, kidney, bladder or testis, or with lymphoma, and in only 3-3% of control patients. Antibodies to thecacell antigens were not more common in patients with cancer than in other patients, but within the group of cancer patients, such antibodies were, in all but one case, associated with cancer of the genito-urinary tract or with lymphoma. The anti-theca-cell antibodies observed produced a staining pattern indistinguishable from that obtained with the serum of patients with Addison's disease but were not, in the cancer patients, associated with antibodies to adrenal tissue. Tests for antibody to the cytoplasm of ova were more frequently positive in patients with progressive cancers than in patients successfully treated by surgery or radiation, and were seen in patients in whom cancer had recurred following removal of the organ of origin. These findings suggest that the antigen or antigens that evoke antibody to the cytoplasm of ova arise from tumour cells rather than from damage to normal tissue by surgery, tumour invasion or radiation.