Elevated anti-cholesterol antibody levels in the sera of non-small cell lung cancer patients

Abstract

There have been no published data yet on the serum level of antibodies against cholesterol (anti-cholesterol antibodies) in oncological patients. We decided to examine these levels in the sera of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Measurements were performed by ELISA technique in the sera of 44 NSCLC patients and the results were compared to the anti-cholesterol antibody levels of 34 non-tumorous control subjects. Serum anti-cholesterol antibody levels were found to be significantly higher in NSCLC patients than in non-tumorous controls (40.35 arbitrary units/ml (AU/ml) versus 26.00 AU/ml, P=0.0003). The elevated anti-cholesterol antibody values were observable at different percentile values as well (25 percentile: 27.01 AU/ml in NSCLC patients, versus 17.33 AU/ml in controls; 75 percentile: 60.90 AU/ml in NSCLC patients versus 32.90 AU/ml in controls). These results suggest that anti-cholesterol antibodies might be applicable for the serodiagnosis of NSCLC. We emphasize the need for the collection of more data on anti-cholesterol antibody levels in NSCLC patients and in patients with different other malignant tumours in order to investigate the possible benefit anti-cholesterol antibodies might offer in clinical work.