Evidence for the elevation of serum carcinoembryonic antigen and tumor-associated glycoprotein-72 Levels in patients administered interferons

Authors

John Greiner, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
Fiorella Guadagni, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
David Goldstein, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
Ernest Borden, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
Roy Ritts, Medical college of Wisconsin, USA
Patricia Witt, Medical College of Wisconsin, USA
Albert LoBuglio, University Of Alabama At Birmingham, USA
Mansoor Saleh, Aga Khan UniversityFollow
Jeffrey Schlom, University Of Alabama At Birmingham, USA

Document Type

Article

Department

Haematology and Oncology, East Africa

Abstract

Sera were collected from 111 patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma or nonadenocarcinoma malignancies who received different schedules of interferon (IFN)-γ or IFN-βser alone or in combination. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and tumor-associated glycoprotein-72 (TAG-72) antigen levels were measured to determine whether interferon could enhance the tumor shedding and, thereby, the serum level of either tumor antigen. Less than 10% of the sera samples from patients diagnosed with nonadenocarcinoma malignancies (e.g., hairy cell leukemia, melanoma) had positive titers of TAG-72 or CEA, and interferon neither increased nor resulted in the appearance of either tumor antigen in those sera. In contrast, 59.2% and 75.4% of the patients with adenocarcinoma had positive serum levels of TAG-72 and CEA, respectively, prior to interferon. IFN-γ and IFN-βser alone or in combination significantly increased serum TAG-72 or CEA in approximately 65% of those patients. The results suggest that interferon administration to patients with adenocarcinoma can result in increased serum levels of selected tumor-associated antigens used in the diagnosis of malignancy. These preliminary findings may be important in the development of new strategies to obtain more sensitive tumor antigen serum assays for the diagnosis and monitoring for disease progression of adenocarcinoma.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

Cancer research

Recommended Citation

Greiner, J., Guadagni, F., Goldstein, D., Borden, E., Ritts, R., Witt, P., LoBuglio, A., Saleh, M., Schlom, J. (1991). Evidence for the elevation of serum carcinoembryonic antigen and tumor-associated glycoprotein-72 Levels in patients administered interferons. Cancer research, 51(16), 4155-4163.
Available at: https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_fhs_mc_haematol_oncol/138