Electrophoretic abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and cancer sera

It was previously shown (Am J Clin Pathol 55: 65-67, 1971) that sera from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) produce a characteristic pattern on disk-acrylamide gels. Other observations indicating the presence of immunosuppressive proteins in the sera of patients with cancer suggested the search for characteristic protein patterns employing the same technic. Utilizing sera from patients with various types of malignancies and appropriate controls, the results appear to indicate that there is a consistent and distinctive pattern to the gels. The nature of the (different) protein(s) remains to be elucidated.