
1846. anaphylactic tests in model tumour antigen investigations
the efficacy of anaphylactic tests in detecting
'tumor' antigen in serum was investi-
gated.  a simple model of a tumor-antigen
study was carried out using rat tissue
and rat serum, with bovine y-globulin (byg)
acting as a mock cancer antigen.  it
was found that if byg (absolute dosage 100
ug.) had formed 1/6 of the antigen mix-
ture used for sensitization it was readily
detected when present in a concentration
of 10-3 in the serum used for challenge,
but not invariably detected in a concentra-
tion of 10-4.  if byg (absolute dosage 50
ug.) had formed approximately 1/50 of the
sensitizing mixture, it was infrequently
detected even when present in the challeng-
ing serum in a concentration of 10-2.  it
is concluded that anaphylactic tests used in
this context do not have a very high
sensitivity or discriminatory capacity.
