Demonstration and immunochemical characterization of carcinoembryonic antigen in human pancreatic juice.

Pancreatic juice collected from 10 patients without evidence of malignant disease of the pancreas or other organs was pooled, extracted, and fractionated by Sepharose 6-B and Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) activity in the material was demonstrated and studied by: a) radioimmunoassay, b) competitive binding to antibodies against CEA, c) precipitin inhibition, and d) Ouchterlony analysis. The immunochemical identity of the active material to CEA purified from liver metastases of colon cancer was demonstrated.