QUANTITATIVE ANTIBODY STUDIES IN MAN. III. ANTIBODY RESPONSE IN LEUKEMIA AND OTHER MALIGNANT

The lymphocyte, the plasma cell and the cells of the reticuloendothelial system have been described as sites of antibody formation in animals (1-5). Since the malignant lymphomata in man are often associated with an increase in the number of these cells, studies were initiated to determine if abnor-malities in antibody response occurred in patients with leukemia, lymphosarcoma or Hodgkin's dis-ease. Several reports have appeared in the literature describing the ability to form antibodies in patients with leukemia and related diseases. Antigens used have included typhoid organisms (6-9), vibrio vac-cine (10), and horse serum (11, 12). Antibody responses, measured by methods based on serum dilution techniques, suggested an impairment of antibody formation in patients with chronic leu-kemia, especially in those with chronic lymphatic leukemia. Heterophile antibody titers have been studied in patients with leukemia and allied dis-eases, and the data have recently been reviewed (13, 14). The evidence indicates that the inci-dence of elevated heterophile antibody titers is not increased in the leukemias. The purpose of this communication is to report observations on anti-body formation in human leukemia, lymphosarcoma and Hodgkin's disease, using the quantitative pre-cipitin technique developed by Heidelberger and his associates (15). METHODS None of the patients who served as subjects in this study received radiotherapy, nitrogen mustard or folic acid antagonists for a period of at least six months be-fore the test period. During the test period a few of the subjects were given supportive blood transfusions. Patients with acute leukemia treated with cortisone wer