[Immunodiagnosis of cancer: requirements and results (author's transl)]

Theoretical aspects are considered on the requirements of immunological cancer tests. The criteria of clinical applicability are: Specificity, sensitivity, information with respect to tumour localisation. Immunodiagnostic tests cover the following areas: Early diagnosis on the basis of screening of the whole population or of risk groups, differential diagnosis, detection of relapse or metastases, prognosis. Experimental results are presented on a test for tumour detection. In a blind test study patients with clinically manifest tumours were recognized in about 80--90%, when using human fetal extract as antigen in the macrophage-electro-phoretic-mobility technique.