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Evaluation of Micro-Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition as an Immunodiagnostic Test for Pancreati Cancer¹

Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263 [M.H.G., A.J.R., J.H.H., E.D.H., H.O.D.]; St. James' Hospital, Department of Surgery, Leeds 9, England [S.H.L.]; and Erie County Medical Center, Department of Medicine, Buffalo, New York [M.C.M.]

Carcinoma of the pancreas is the fifth most lethal cancer in humans. Its almost uniform mortality rate is largely related to the rarity with which a diagnosis is established early in the course of the disease. In this study, we have evaluated the leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI) assay as a specific immunodiagnostic test for the presence of pancreatic cancer. One hundred thirty micro-LAI assays were performed on 104 individuals that included 23 pancreatic carcinoma patients, 29 patients with benign disease (14 with acute pancreatitis), 26 patients with nonpancreatic gastrointestinal cancers, and 25 normal healthy volunteers. Using an LAI index of 0.20 as a cut-off value, 19 of 23 patients with pancreatic cancer had a positive test result in the micro-LAI assay. In contrast, 3 of 81 control patients also gave a positive test result. The LAI response of the pancreatic carcinoma patients appeared to be immunologically specific inasmuch as the leukocytes of these patients did not respond to a control colon carcinoma tumor extract. Thus, the micro-LAI assay is able to detect specifically pancreatic cancer and to discriminate between pancreatic cancer, acute pancreatitis, other forms of cancer, and the normal state. While these results suggest an immunodiagnostic potential for the micro-LAI assay in pancreatic cancer, this potential can be realized only after a much larger number of patients are evaluated and concomitant technological improvements are made in the assay that will result in a more standardized response.

¹ Presented at the International Workshop on Leukocyte Adherence Inhibition, May 15 to 17, 1978, Buffalo, N. Y. This work was supported by USPHS Grant CA-23646 and Contract N01-CM-43794 from the Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, 666 Elm Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 14263.

² Presenter. To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.