title: Progastrin in serum from Zollinger-Ellison patients. An indicator of malignancy?
abstract: Progastrin and all of its processing products were measured in serum from 48 patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, 42 patients with duodenal ulcers, and 34 normal subjects. A processing-independent gastrin analysis and a conventional radioimmunoassay for the biologically active alpha-amidated gastrins were used. In serum from normal subjects, 87% (median; range, 27%-160%) of all progastrin products were alpha-amidated gastrins, whereas they constituted only 39% (15%-130%) in serum from patients with duodenal ulcers (p less than 0.01) and 46% (16%-100%) in serum from gastrinoma patients (p less than 0.01). A significantly lower percentage of alpha-amidated gastrin was found in patients with hepatic metastases (23%) than in patients with apparently benign tumors (54%). Chromatography of serum showed that large progastrin molecules occurred mainly in patients with malignant tumors, whereas smaller glycine-extended precursors dominated in patients with benign tumors. The results indicate that the total progastrin product reflects tumor synthesis of gastrin better than conventional measurements of alpha-amidated gastrin. Moreover, the results suggest that a low degree of processing of progastrin could serve as a predictor of a malignant clinical course at an early stage of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Gastroenterology C, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bardram
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005755:Gastrins / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D015043:Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005755:Gastrins; D011498:Protein Precursors; C013706:big gastrin