Iwamoto O, Nagao Y, Shichijo S, Eura M, Kameyama T, Itoh K
Department of Immunology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
Int J Cancer. 1997 Jan 27;70(3):287-90. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19970127)70:3<287::aid-ijc7>3.0.co;2-t.
The MAGE-4 gene, a member of the MAGE gene family, is expressed in various cancers, including head-and-neck squamous-cell carcinomas (HN-SCC), but is not expressed in any normal tissues except for the testis and placenta. The aim of this study was to determine whether serum MAGE-4 protein is a useful tumor marker for detection of HN-SCC. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum level of MAGE-4 protein. The serum level of MAGE-4 in pre-operative HN-SCC patients was significantly higher than that in patients with non-malignant diseases (NMD) of the head and neck, volunteers undergoing cancer screening (VOL), or healthy donors (HD). When the cut-off level was determined at 1.15 ng/ml (mean plus 3 SD of HD), sera from 28 of 96 patients with HN-SCC (p < 0.0001 vs. the other groups), 7 of 82 patients with NMD, 2 of 92 with VOL, and 0 of 68 HD were positive for MAGE-4. Serum levels of MAGE-4 protein in all 7 HN-SCC patients whose sera were positive for MAGE-4 before operation decreased after operation, and, in one patient, a renewed rise in serum level was followed by recurrence. These results indicate that MAGE-4 protein is detectable in sera of a significant number of HN-SCC patients, and that serum MAGE-4 protein might be a useful tumor marker to monitor the recurrence of MAGE-4-positive HN-SCC.
MAGE-4基因是MAGE基因家族的成员之一，在包括头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HN-SCC）在内的多种癌症中表达，但除睾丸和胎盘外，在任何正常组织中均不表达。本研究的目的是确定血清MAGE-4蛋白是否为检测HN-SCC的有用肿瘤标志物。采用酶联免疫吸附测定法测量血清MAGE-4蛋白水平。术前HN-SCC患者的血清MAGE-4水平显著高于头颈部非恶性疾病（NMD）患者、接受癌症筛查的志愿者（VOL）或健康供体（HD）。当将临界值确定为1.15 ng/ml（HD的平均值加3个标准差）时，96例HN-SCC患者中有28例血清MAGE-4呈阳性（与其他组相比，p < 0.0001），82例NMD患者中有7例、92例VOL患者中有2例、68例HD患者中有0例血清MAGE-4呈阳性。术前血清MAGE-4呈阳性的所有7例HN-SCC患者术后血清MAGE-4水平均下降，且有1例患者血清水平再次升高后出现复发。这些结果表明，在相当数量的HN-SCC患者血清中可检测到MAGE-4蛋白，血清MAGE-4蛋白可能是监测MAGE-4阳性HN-SCC复发的有用肿瘤标志物。
