Localization of alpha-fetoprotein synthesis in malignancies other than hepatoma.

Immunofluorescence staining was applied to tissue with primary nonhepatic malignancies and/or their metastatic nodules in the liver. Tumor cells from the primary sites of two patients with carcinoma of the pancreas and one patient with Hodgkin's disease were found to be positive for alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). In five patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer, and two with nongastrointestinal tract carcinoma, the liver cells immediately adjacent to the metastiatic foci were positive for AFP. Negative results for AFP was found in seven patients with liver metastasis; of these seven patients, five had nongastrointestinal tract cancer, and two had cancer that arose in the gastrointestinal tract. It is unclear what influences the production of AFP in cases of liver metastasis, since some neoplasms from the same organ system do provoke this phenomenon, and others do not.