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Deletion of epithelial ABH isoantigens in primary gastric neoplasms and in metastatic cancer

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Abstract

A, B and H isoantigens, demonstrable in human gastric and small intestinal mucosae, using the mixed cell agglutination reaction, were diminished or absent in eight of nine gastric epithelial malignancies. In all metastases, there was complete absence of isoantigenic activity, even though in three of the corresponding primary gastric tumors, there was some residual activity. The loss of isoantigenicity noted in tumors paralleled that seen in the intestinalized metaplastic epithelium accompanying such tumors. In 2 patients with pernicious anemia, there was partial retention of such isoantigenicity in tumor tissue. Although it is not known whether they cause or result from malignant change, these findings suggest that an alteration of blood-group substance synthesis occurs in malignant epithelium. It is conceivable that such alterations may contribute to the potential of malignant cells to metastasize.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Daniel G. Sheahan MB, MSc, Stanislav A. Horowitz AB, BS & Norman Zamcheck MD

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

    Daniel G. Sheahan MB, MSc, Stanislav A. Horowitz AB, BS & Norman Zamcheck MD

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

    Daniel G. Sheahan MB, MSc, Stanislav A. Horowitz AB, BS & Norman Zamcheck MD

Authors
  1. Daniel G. Sheahan MB, MSc
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  2. Stanislav A. Horowitz AB, BS
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  3. Norman Zamcheck MD
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Additional information

Supportéd 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 thank Dr. Israel Davidsohn for his advice and help.

Senior Clinical Traineeship (Cancer Control) CST-529 A 67 from US Public Health Service; present address: Division of Experimental Pathology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC 20012.

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Sheahan, D.G., Horowitz, S.A. & Zamcheck, N. Deletion of epithelial ABH isoantigens in primary gastric neoplasms and in metastatic cancer. Digest Dis Sci 16, 961–969 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02235003

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02235003

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