PRESENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THOMSEN-FRIEDENREICH ANTIGEN IN BREAST-CANCER .1. SEROLOGICAL STUDIES

Serum levels of antibodies against the Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen were determined for a group of patients with malignancies of the breast, as well as a control group of healthy persons and patients with no breast disease. Despite recent claims of anti-TF levels being severely depressed in patients with breast cancer, no significant differences between the 2 groups were found. Standardized anti-TF containing sera or solutions of the TF specific agglutinin from peanuts (PNA) were absorbed with membrane preparations from normal and cancerous breast tissue, but again no differences in absorption were noted. Histological examination, by contrast, showed free and sialic acid-covered receptors to be present on normal and malignant breast epithelium. Determination of serum anti-TF is an unsatisfactory method of diagnosing breast cancer and the TF antigen cannot be considered to be carcinoma associated.