biol med 2 261 272 1984 examples of suitable assays include radioimmunoassay immunofluorescence assays enzyme linked immunoassays and the like those skilled in the art will be familiar with numerous specific immunoassay formats and variations thereof which may be useful for carrying out the method disclosed herein see generally e maggio enzyme immunoassay 1980 crc press inc boca raton fla the present invention is explained in greater detail in the following examples the examples show among other things that 1 mutant p53 proteins which bind hsp70 elicit serum autoantibodies 2 conversely the presence of anti p53 autoantibodies reflects the presence of a p53 mutation which binds hsp70 3 the presence of an anti p53 autoantibody therefore establishes the presence of a growth within the body of a subject which produces an hsp70 binding mutant p53 4 detection of an anti p53 autoantibody can be used to determine the class of p53 mutant produced within the body 5 detection of an anti p53 autoantibody will determine that a growth somewhere in the body is cancerous and is producing an hsp70 binding p53 mutant protein and 6 detection of p53 autoantibody indicates a more aggressive tumor in example 1 jack keene eric winer and robert bast of duke university durham n c supplied patient sera temperatures are given in degrees centigrade unless otherwise indicated pieces from breast biopsies and mastectomies performed at duke university medical center were collected after surgical removal immediately flash frozen and stored at 120 u00b0 c specimens from sixty patients whose tumors were diagnosed as primary invasive breast carcinoma.