Hepatitis-associated antigen in patients with cancer.

The hepatitis-associated antigen (HAA) (Australian antigen) is either the infective agent of viral hepatitis or a virus-related protein(l). It is present in the blood during the incubation period and early clinical course of acute viral hepatitis in adults(l,2). The presence of the HAA in Krugman's long incubation hepatitis (MS-2) and its absence in childhood hepatitis, epidemic hepatitis, and in short incubation hepatitis (MS-1) indicates it is associated with the serum hepatitis virus (s)(2,3). The antigen persists for longer periods in the blood of some patients with chronic active hepatitis(4,5) and dialysis-associated hepatitis(6). It is frequently present in the serum of patients with Down's syndrome(7), lepromatous leprosy(8) and certain types of leukemia(7,9-11). We have investigated the frequency of HAA in the sera of patients with a wide spectrum of neoplastic diseases, including primary and metastatic liver neoplasms. Many of the patients studied had received multiple transfusions and were being treated with immunosuppressant drugs.