Antibodies for mycoplasmas in normal individuals and patients with neoplasias

With the indirect hemagglutination test, the sera from normal individuals and patients with Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, reticulum cell sarcoma and chronic lymphatic leukemia were tested for the presence of antibodies to 7 mycoplasmas of human origin. The proportions of patients with antibodies were comparable to those of the controls. Antibodies to M. fermentans were found in the majority of the sera tested. Approximately half of the sera contained antibodies to M. salivarium and M. orale. Antibodies to M. hominis types 1 and 2, M. pneumoniae and M. 880 were found infrequently. Differences between the tumor groups were not significant. The tumor group with the highest proportion of individuals without demonstrable antibody to any of the mycoplasmas was the chronic lymphatic leukemia group. The significance of these findings is dicussed.