Antibodies in the sera of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma that react with antigen from a tumour cell line

Summary Antigenic material was isolated from a human squamous cell bronchogenic carcinoma tissue culture line A549 that was found to react with antibodies in the serum of patients with lung cancer in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), while it did not react with sera from normal individuals. The antigen was tested with a panel of sera from a variety of patient groups by means of the ELISA. Results showed significantly higher numbers of sera from patients with lung cancer, particularly those of squamous cell origin, reacting with the antigen than of sera from 173 normal individuals or patients with breast and gynaecological cancers or melanomas.