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Recent advances in immunologic diagnosis of digestive tract cancer

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Abstract

Recently, several immunologic tests for the detection of gastrointestinal malignancy have been described. These tests operate on the principle that malignant tumors may contain antigens that are not present in nonmalignant tissues or that are present in these tissues in either insignificant amounts or undetectable forms. The tumor-associated antigens may be largely specific (with exceptions) for a given organ such as the liver (hepatoma), as in the case ofα-fetoglobulin, or for an organ system such as the gastrointestinal tract, as in the case of carcinoembryonic antigen. Several of these antigens have been found in various fetal tissues, thereby establishing a link between fetal biology and tumor pathogenesis.

In this review, we have briefly reviewed four new immunologic tests of potential use in the detection of gastrointestinal tract cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. From the Mallory Gastrointestinal Laboratory and the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, Harvard Medical Unit, Boston City Hospital, USA

    Alfred Stillman MD & Norman Zamcheck MD

  2. the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA

    Alfred Stillman MD & Norman Zamcheck MD

  3. the Department of Pathology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Mass

    Alfred Stillman MD & Norman Zamcheck MD

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  1. Alfred Stillman MD
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  2. Norman Zamcheck MD
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Supported by Grants CA-04486 and CA-02090 from the National Cancer Institute, and TI AM 5320, from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful suggestions made by Drs. Elliot Alpert, Phil Gold. Sen-itiroh Hakomori and I. P. T. Hakkinen who read the manuscript in whole or in part.

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Stillman, A., Zamcheck, N. Recent advances in immunologic diagnosis of digestive tract cancer. Digest Dis Sci 15, 1003–1018 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02232820

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