Tumor markers in carcinoma and premalignant states of the stomach in humans.

Tissue sections taken from areas of carcinoma, areas of intestinal metaplasia in stomachs bearing carcinoma are areas of intestinal metaplasia in stomachs showing atrophic gastritis only were examined for eight markers: a tumour-derived colon-specific antigen (tCSA), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), pregnancy-specific beta-glycoprotein 1 (SP1), human placental lactogen (HPL), human beta chorionic gonadotrophin (beta-HCG), transferrin (TF) and ferritin (FE). In terms of the number of markers demonstrated in each of the three categories, there is a close similarity between the cells of adenocarcinoma and cells of intestinal metaplasia in cases of cancer, but not to similar metaplastic cells in atrophic gastritis cases. In addition, it appears that the presence of tCSA and SP1 is closely linked to carcinoma, though only approximately half of such cases contain these markers. It would also appear that there are two types of morphologically identical intestinal metaplasia, one related to cancer, the other not. No difference was found between so-called intestinal type and diffuse-type carcinomas.