[Clinical evaluation of serum immunosuppressive acidic protein (IAP) and acid soluble glycoproteins (ASP) in patients with malignant tumors].

In order to study the clinical significance of IAP and ASP, we have measured serum concentration of IAP and ASP in patients with different cancer types including digestive organs, head and neck. Significantly higher correlation (coefficient of correlation = 0.924) was found between IAP and ASP. IAP and ASP levels were elevated in about 60-80% of cancer from digestive organs except hepatocellular carcinoma, and in about 56-100% of head and neck tumor. There was no correlation between IAP, ASP and various tumor markers (CEA, CA19-9, AFP) in all malignancies except pancreatic cancer. There was positive correlation between CEA and IAP, ASP in pancreatic cancer. IAP and ASP levels were significantly higher in patients with cancer having evidence of disease than the patients with cancer who had no evidence of disease, and so the determination of IAP and ASP was clinically useful for the diagnosis of tumor existence. At the time of diagnosis of recurrence, the levels of IAP and ASP were elevated in about 70% of patients with cancer recurrence. There was a definite relation between IAP, ASP and the gastric cancer stage. In later state (stage III and IV), serum IAP and ASP levels were significantly higher than the levels of stage I and II. In hepatocellular carcinoma without liver cirrhosis, the levels of IAP and ASP were higher than the patients with cirrhosis. The determination of IAP and ASP seems to be useful for monitoring clinical course, judgement of therapeutic effects.