title: The society of Surgical Oncology Lucy Wortham James Research Award 1983. Radioimmunoassay in oncology.
abstract: The role of radioimmunoassay (RIA) in the diagnosis and management of endocrine tumors, such as pituitary tumors, insulinomas, and gastrinomas, has long been well established. A variety of nonendocrine tumors are capable of elaborating one or more humoral substances that resemble immunologically well-known, well-characterized biologically active hormones or their prohormone precursors or metabolic products. The possible value of mass screening for carcinoma of the lung by the detection of precursor adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in plasma was tested. However, the usefulness was limited by the potential for false-positive, i.e., elevation of marker concentration in the plasma of heavy smokers even in the absence of invasive carcinoma. Although on occasion a dramatic decrease of plasma ACTH after surgical resection or on some chemotherapeutic schedules has been observed, this does not occur with sufficient regularity to serve definitely as an objective measure of efficacy of therapy. The limitations of nonhormonal tumor markers, such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), are also considered.
mesh_terms: D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000097:blood; D000818:Animals; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004700:Endocrine System Diseases / Q000097:blood; D005755:Gastrins / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D009384:Paraneoplastic Endocrine Syndromes / Q000097:blood; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D015043:Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D005755:Gastrins; D007328:Insulin; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone