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Evidence for the Elevation of Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Tumor-associated Glycoprotein-72 Levels in Patients Administered Interferons

Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 [J. W. G., F. G., J. S.]; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53792 [D. G., E. C. B., P. W.]; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905 [R. E. R.]; and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294 [A. F. L., M. N. S.]

Sera were collected from 111 patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma or nonadenocarcinoma malignancies who received different schedules of interferon (IFN)- or IFN-ß_ser 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- and IFN-ß_ser 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.

¹ To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

³ Current address: Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226.

Received 3/19/91. Accepted 6/10/91.

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