Abstract
We report on our experience investigating the serum levels of the soluble domain of p185 and theneu protein expression in the corresponding tumour tissue in patients with advanced gastrointestinal carcinomas. The study included 32 patients who were treated with palliative chemotherapy. The serum levels of theneu protein were investigated by immunosorbent assay techniques. We used the alkaline phosphatase/anti-(alkaline phosphatase) method for investigating the corresponding tumour tissue immunohistochemically. Increased serumneu protein levels were found in 8 of 22 (36%) patients with colorectal carcinomas and in 2 patients with advanced abdominal adenocarcinoma of unknown primary. All other patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers were serum-neu-protein-negative. All serum-neu-protein-positive patients with colorectal carcinomas showed also an elevatedneu protein expression. The extent of serumneu protein expression corresponded to the clinical course and the tumour marker CA 19–9. The serumneu protein may be useful for monitoring patients with advanced colorectal carcinomas, particularly in cases of immunohistochemicalneu-protein-positive primary tumours.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akiyama T, Sudo CH, Ogawara H, et al (1986) The product of the human c-erbB-2 gene: a 185 kilodalton glycoprotein with tyrosine kinase activity. Science 232: 1644–1646
Arnaout AH, Dawson PM, Soormo S, et al. (1992)HER2 (c-erbB-2) oncoprotein expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma: an immunohistological study using three different antibodies. J Clin Pathol 45: 726–727
Carney WP, Hamer PJ, Petit D, et al (1991) Detection and quantitation of the humanneu oncoprotein. J Tumor Marker Oncol 6:53–72
Coussens L, Yang-Feng TL, Liao YC et al (1985) Tyrosine kinase receptor with extensive homology to EGF receptor shares chromosomal location withneu oncogene. Science 230: 1132–1139
D'Emilia J, Bulovas K, D'Ercole K, et al (1989) Expression of the c-erbB-2 gene product (p185) at different stages of neoplastic progression in the colon. Oncogene 4: 1233–1239
Hayes DF, Carney W, Tondini C, et al (1989) Elevated circulating c-neu oncogene product in patients with breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 14: 135
Jaehne J, Urmbacher C, Thaler HT, et al (1992) Expression ofHER2/neu oncogene product p185 in correlation to clinicopathological and prognostic factors of gastric cacinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 118:474–479
Kath R, Höffken K, Otte C et al (1993) Theneu oncogene product in serum and tissue of patients with breast carcinoma. Ann Oncol 4: 585–590
Kluftinger AM, Robinson BW, Quenville NF, et al (1992) Correlation of epidermal growth factor receptor and c-erbB-2 oncogene product to known prognostic indicators of colorectal cancer. Surg Oncol 1:97–105
Kynast B, Binder L, Marx D, et al (1993) Determination of a fragment of the c-erbB-2 translational product p185 in serum of breast cancer patients. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 119: 249–252
Lin YJ, Clinton GM (1991) A soluble protein related to theHER-2 proto-oncogene product is released from human breast carcinoma cell lines. Oncogene 6: 639–643
McCann A, Dervan PA, Johnston PA et al (1990) c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in primary human tumors. Cancer 65: 88–92
McKenzie SJ, Marks PJ, Lam T, et al (1989) Generation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies specific for the humanneu oncogene product, p185. Oncogene 4: 543–548
Meden H, Marx D, Hammadi H et al (1992) Immunohistochemically detected oncoprotein p185/neu in ovarian cancer: a new prognosis factor? In: Klapdor R (ed) Tumor associated antigens, oncogenes, receptors, cytokines in tumor diagnosis and therapy at the beginning of the nineties. Zuckschwerdt, München Bern Berlin pp 431–432
Mizutani T, Onda M, Tokunaga A, et al (1993) Relationship of c-erbB-2 protein expression and gene amplification to invasion and metastasis in human gastric cancer. Cancer 72: 2083–2088
Nakamura T, Nekarda H, Hoelscher AH, et al (1994) Prognostic value of DNA ploidy and c-erbB-2 oncoprotein overexpression in adenocarcinoma of Barrett's esphagus. Cancer 73: 1785–1794
Sasaki K, Tomita Y, Azuma M, et al (1992) Amplification and overexpression of the c-erbB-2 protooncogene in human gastric cancer. Gastroenterol Jpn 27: 172–178
Schechter AL, Stern DF, Vaidyanathan L, et al (1984) Theneu oncogene: anerb-B-related gene encoding a 185,000-M tumor antigen. Nature 312: 513–516
Slamon DJ, Clark GM, Wong SG, et al (1987) Human breast cancer correlation of relapse and survival with amplification of theHER-2/neu oncogene. Science 235: 177–182
Slamon DJ, Godolphin W, Jones LA, et al (1989) Studies of theHER-2/neu proto-oncogene in human breast and ovarian cancer. Science 244: 707–712
Tateishi M, Ishida T, Mitsudomi T et al (1991) Prognostic value of c-erbB-2 protein expression in human lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Eur J Cancer 27: 1372–1375
Uchino S, Tsuda H, Maruyama K et al (1993) Overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein in gastric cancer. Its correlation with long-term survival of patients. Cancer 72: 3179–3184
Vogelstein B, Fearon ER, Hamilton SR, et al (1988) Genetic alterations during colorectal-tumor development. N Engl J Med 319: 525–532
Wu JT, Astill ME, Zhang P (1993) Detection of the extracellular domain of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein in sera from patients with various carcinomas: correlation with tumor markers. J Clin Lab Anal 7: 31–40
Yonemura Y, Ninomiya I, Yamaguchi A, et al (1991) Evaluation of immunoreactivity forerbB-2 protein as a marker of poor short term prognosis in gastric cancer. Cancer Res 51: 1034–1038
Zabrecky JR, Lam T, McKenzie SJ, et al (1991) The extracellular domain of p185/neu is released from the surface of human breast carcinoma cells, SK-BR-3. J Biol Chem 266: 1716–1720
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vogel, W., Kath, R., Kosmehl, H. et al. Theneu oncogene product in serum and tissue of patients with metastatic gastrointestinal carcinomas. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 122, 118–121 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01226269
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01226269