Anticardiolipin and antinuclear antibodies in cancer patients--a case control study.

OBJECTIVE To investigate patients with cancer for the frequency of IgG and IgM aCL and ANA in comparison to a group of age- and sex-matched controls. METHODS Serum levels of IgG and IgM anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and anticytoplasmic antibodies were evaluated in 145 cancer patients, including 20 patients with thromboembolic disease (TED) and compared with age- and sex-matched controls. RESULTS Higher levels of IgG aCL were found in patients compared to controls (p < 0.02). However, there appeared to be no difference in serum aCL levels between TED and the remaining cancer patients. No difference was found in the frequency of antinuclear and anticytoplasmic antibodies between patients and controls and the autoantibody presence in patients was usually not associated with concomitant autoimmune disease. CONCLUSION Apart from increased levels of non-thrombogenic associated IgG aCL, there was no evidence for significantly enhanced B cell autoreactivity in this large collection of cancer patients compared to controls.