Serum mucin antigens casa and msa in tumors of the breast, ovary, lung, pancreas, bladder, colon, and prostate. A blind trial with 420 patients

Abstract

Background. The tumor markers CASA (cancer‐associated serum antigen) and MSA (mammary serum antigen) have previously been shown to be useful in the clinical management of ovarian and breast carcinoma, respectively, but have not been assessed in other types of cancer. These assays were compared with carcinoem‐bryonic antigen (CEA) and prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) in a blind trial using sera from the Mayo Clinic‐National Cancer Institute (NCI) Diagnostic Serum Bank. Methods. CASA and MSA were assessed retrospectively in a blind trial using 465 serum samples from the Mayo Clinic‐NCI Diagnostic Serum Bank representing malignant and benign disease of the breast, ovary, lung, pancreas, bladder, colon, and prostate and age‐matched and gender‐matched healthy control donors. CASA MSA, and PSA levels were determined using commercially available kits, and CEA values and clinical details were later provided by the Mayo Clinic. Results. CASA and MSA showed good reproducibility in 45 duplicate samples. CASA values were significantly elevated in the serum of patients with malignant tumors of the breast (44%), ovary (58%), lung (56%), prostate (48%), and bladder (54%), but not in those with benign conditions of these organs or pancreatic or colon cancer. MSA levels were only elevated significantly in cancers of the breast (52%) and ovary (58%). CASA showed significantly better sensitivity than either CEA (20%) or MSA (25%) in the detection of lung cancer, whereas CEA showed significantly superior detection of colon cancers (78%). CASA was not as sensitive as PSA in prostate cancer (48% versus 96%), but gave superior specificity in nonmalignant conditions of the prostate (93% versus 70%), although this was not statistically significant. Conclusions. The commercial CASA and MSA assays are reliable and reproducible tests for these tumor markers. In addition to ovarian cancer, CASA is also elevated significantly in many patients with breast, lung, prostate, and bladder cancer and has potential clinical use in patients with these tumors. The use of the MSA assay appears restricted to breast cancer.

Glycoprotein Changes in Tumours: A Renaissance in Clinical Applications

“…For example, PSA also appears in lung and breast tumours [57]. Devine et al [58] compared PSA with other more highly glycosylated antigens as a TAA in colon, breast, prostate, pancreas, lung, bladder and ovary. Changes in the lung have also been correlated with mRNA levels of several MUC genes [59], and the levels of mRNA of a number of other MUC genes have been found increased in different cancer tissues (recently reviewed in [60]).…”

O-glycosylation of MUC1 mucin in prostate cancer and the effects of its expression on tumor growth in a prostate cancer xenograft model

“…Some studies indicate that MUC1 also may play a role in progression and metastasis of prostate cancer, with altered cell-surface expression patterns and aberrant glycosylation. However, the results are variable and often depend on which antibody was used to detect MUC1 [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Gene expression profiling using DNA microarrays has shown that MUC1 correlates with metastasis and disease recurrence in prostate cancer [21].…”

MUC1 expression in human prostate cancer cell lines and primary tumors

“…The few studies that are available suggest that MUC1 also plays a role in progression and metastasis of prostate cancer, usually with higher immunoreactivity, altered cell-surface expression patterns (from apical expression to diffuse staining), and altered glycosylation, although there is still considerable variability among studies. 8,9,[12][13][14][15][16][17] Unfortunately, most of these reports are limited by small sample sizes and are confounded by differences in methodology (eg, antibodies used, processing of tissue samples) and the complexity of the disease itself.…”