Reactivity of Human Sera With Adenovirus Type-12 Hamster Tumor Antigens in the Complement-Fixation Test

Sera from 269 patients, most of whom had some type of neoplastic disease, and sera from 103 normal individuals were tested for complement-fixing (CF) antibodies against adenovirus type-12 (A-12) hamster tumor antigens. Twenty-seven percent of the patients and thirty-seven percent of the controls were positive at dilutions ranging from 1:4–1:32, although most of the reactions were at the lower dilutions, i.e.,1:4 and 1:8. Neutralization tests performed on sera from 140 patients indicate a positive correlation between CF antibodies against A-12 tumor antigen and A-12-neutralizing antibodies. No major differences between the tumor-antigen-positive and -negative patients were observed in regard to tumor type, blood group, Rh factor, sex, or color.