J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 92(5): 506-512, 1991

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Original article

STUDIES ON THE CLINICAL EVALUATION OF TISSUE POLYPEPTIDE ANTIGEN (TPA)
LEVELS IN THE PERIPHERAL AND DRAINING VENOUS BLOOD OF GASTRIC CANCER PATIENTS

Correlation with TPA levels of peripheral (p) and draining (d) venous blood, and 11 histopathologic variables, postoperative recurrence and survival was examined in 40 patients with gastric cancer. Elevation of d-TPA levels was correlated with tumor location, size, macroscopic type, invasive layer of gastric wall, venous invasion, node and liver metastases and stage classification, though elevation of p-TPA levels was correlated only with liver metastasis. No significant difference of p-TPA levels was found between the patients with and without cancer recurrence. d-TPA levels (mean 1318U/l and positive rate greater than 726U/l of mean±2SD in patients with benign diseases, 59%) of the former were significantly higher than those (518U/l and 15%) of the latter. Correlation between d-TPA levels and recurrent sites was not found. Most of the patients with hematogenous recurrence showed the elevated p-TPA levels, but none of the patients with local recurrence revealed the elevation. Survival in both patients with non-elevated p- and d-TPA levels was significantly better than in patients with the elevated levels. These results suggest d-TPA levels are more closely correlated with histopathologic variables and postoperative recurrent rates than p-TPA levels, preoperative determination of p- and d-TPA levels is useful for the estimation of the postoperative prognosis and patients with elevated p- and d-TPA levels should be clinically treated as patients with high recurrence and poor prognosis.

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