Table 1. Positive rates of serum anti-BPAG1 auto-antibody in stage-classified melanoma patients.

stage	total sample number	BPAG1 auto-antibody positive	%
early	18	6	33.3
advanced	37	7	18.9
total	55	13	23.6

The maximum INDEX value in healthy volunteers (4.64) was defined as the cut off level. The patients were classified by using the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 2002 staging criteria. In situ, stage I or stage II patients were classified as “early”, while stage III or stage IV patients were classified as “advanced”.