THE STUDY ON SOLUBLE FORM OF HLA CLASS I MOLECULE AS A NEW CANDIDATE OF TUMOR MARKER IN PANCREATIC CANCER.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Background : In recent studies a soluble form of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I (sHLA-I) has been found in blood, urine, ascitic fluid and various other tissues. Research has been focused on the role of sHLA-I in the induction of immunotolerance in organ transplantation. To examine the role of sHLA-I in the immune system of patients with malignancy, we examined serum sHLA-I levels in patients with pancreatic, biliary and hepatic malignancy and other diseases. Materials and methods : We examined sHLA-I levels in the sera of patients with pancreatic cancer (n = 19), benign biliary disease and chronic pancreatitis (n = 20), hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 51 ), gallbladder cancer (n = 6) and cholangiocellular carcinoma (n = 6), as well as in normal controls (n = 22), using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In patients with pancreatic cancer we also analyzed the relationship between sHLA-I and CA19-9, and the specificity and sensitivity of sHLA-I.Results : When patients with acute or chronic hepatitis were excluded from analysis, the mean sHLA-I level in patients with pancreatic cancer was significantly higher than that of normal controls (P < 0.01) and patients with benign disease (P < 0.01), hepatocellular carcinoma (P < 0.01), gallbladder cancer (P < 0.05) and cholangiocarcinoma (P < 0.05). We determined a serum sHLA-I cut-off level for normal controls of 2000 ng/ml ; serum levels of sHLA-I were higher than the cut-off in 10 patients with pancreatic cancer, and serum levels of CA19-9 were lower than 37 IU/l in 9 out of 14 patients. The sensitivity and specificity were 88.2% and 85.5%, respectively. Discussion : Serum levels of sHLA-I in pancreatic cancer were higher than in the other diseases, although we found that pancreatic cancer-cell lines did not produce the sHLA-I.The evaluation of serum sHLA-I levels could have clinical significance in pancreatic cancer.