Autoantibodies against Cardiolipin in the Serum of Patients with Colorectal Adenocarcinoma:Their Prognostic Significance

Abstract
Using an ELISA method, the sera of 43 patients with colon adenocarcinoma (CA) and of 26 surgical patients with nonmalignant disease of the gastrointestinal tract were studied for the presence of autoantibodies against cardiolipin (CLP) before and 1 month after surgery. Forty healthy volunteers were used as controls. Fourteen CA patients were found to be positive for anti-CLP autoantibodies before surgical treatment, and 15 patients were found to be positive 1 month after surgery. The difference between the group of CA patients and either the group of patients with nonmalignant diseases of the GI tract, or the group of healthy individuals was statistically significant (p = 0.003). The group of CA patients with high anti-CLP serum titer had a better outcome compared with the group of patients without detectable autoantibody titer (p = 0.08), estimated based on the frequency of recurrences, during the follow-up period. Further studies are in progress to evaluate the significance of anti-CLP antibodies as a biological marker of prognosis in CA patients.