ABSTRACT
Summary Antibody immunity to a number of oncogenic proteins has been identified over the last several years. While investigators are using the presence of antibody immunity as an indicator for a potential T-cell response, and, thus, identification of T-cell antigens that may be exploited for therapy, antibody immunity in and of itself may have great utility in the diagnosis and management of human malignancy. Antibodies directed against the p53 oncogenic protein have been the most completely studied. A p53 specific antibody response may eventually be developed as a diagnostic or prognostic tool in monitoring the therapy of many types of cancers. A human antibody response directed against a growth factor receptor, such as HER-2/neu, may actually have some therapeutic importance. Human antibodies directed against a number of oncogenic proteins have been defined. As we progress the assessment of antibody immunity from a laboratory to a clinical tool, assays must be better refined to allow wide scale measurement of the cancer-specific humoral immune response.
