Serum proteins in prostatic cancer. I. Relationship between clinical stage and level

In 23 patients with carcinoma of the prostate the relationship between the clinical stage of malignancy and the level of the major electrophoretic fractions of serum as determined by cellulose acetate electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis was studied. The authors observed an increase in the levels of alpha₂ and beta globulins in carcinoma patients; furthermore, the percentage of patients possessing elevations of those proteins increased as the prostatic malignancy progressed. While elevations of alpha₂ and/or beta globulins are not pathognomonic for prostatic carcinoma, the association of their progressive increase with a progression of malignancy and observations by others of the presence of abnormal serum proteins in patients with epithelial rather than reticuloendothelial neoplasms suggests the usefulness of such analysis in the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with malignancy in determining the possible extent of the disease.