Identification of epithelial cell adhesion molecule autoantibody in patients with ovarian cancer.
The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) exhibited an ovarian cancer:normal human ovarian surface epithelium ratio of 444. For validation studies, real-time quantitative PCR analysis and immunohistochemistry were performed in normal and malignant ovarian epithelial cell lines and tissues. To evaluate the potential of the Ep-CAM autoantibody as a tumor marker, we examined the amount of Ep-CAM autoantibody in serum samples obtained from ovarian cancer patients and normal controls by an ELISA. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed significant overexpression of Ep-CAM mRNA in cancer cell lines (P < 0.001) and microdissected cancer tissues (P < 0.05), compared with that in cultured normal human ovarian surface epithelium and microdissected germinal epithelium, respectively. Immunolocalization of the Ep-CAM autoantibody showed that the sera of ovarian cancer patients expressed higher levels of Ep-CAM autoantibody than benign tumor patients and normal controls (P < 0.05). The levels of Ep-CAM autoantibody found were as follows: 0.132 in 52 patients with ovarian cancer, 0.098 in 26 cases with benign gynecologic disease, and 0.090 in 26 normal women. This investigation has shown that the Ep-CAM autoantibody was found to be associated with ovarian cancer and suggested that future research assessing its clinical usefulness would be worthwhile.
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Jae-Hoon
JH
Kim
Dorothee
D
Herlyn
Kwong-kwok
KK
Wong
Dong-Choon
DC
Park
John O
JO
Schorge
Karen H
KH
Lu
Steven J
SJ
Skates
Daniel W
DW
Cramer
Ross S
RS
Berkowitz
Samuel C
SC
Mok
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000276:immunology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D010053:Ovary / Q000473:pathology; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D001323:Autoantibodies; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D012333:RNA, Messenger