DNA-binding proteins in the sera of patients with malignant melanoma

Sera of patients with various malignancies are known to contain DNA-binding proteins (DBP) which are not present in sera of normal individuals. In this paper sera of patients with malignant melanoma (MM) were examined as to whether characteristic DBP are present, too. DBP are isolated by DNA-affinity chromatography and represent 0.5-0.9% of all serum proteins. After separation of the DBP by SDS slab gel electrophoresis no typical DBP is detectable in sera of MM-patients. However, quantitative differences are found in sera of patients in the clinical stages I-III and/or tumor level 3-5: 1. All 9 sera of patients who had clinical signs of MM contain more DBP with molecular weight (mw) of 20,000-24,000 dalton than control sera. However, these DBP are only increased in 30% of the 22 sera from MM-patients who had clinical signs for 13-73 months after tumor excision. 2. All sera of the 10 MM-patients of whom sera were drawn twice after tumor excision at an interval of 7-46 months without clinical signs, showed a reduction of DBP with mw 30,000, 68,000, and 165,000.