Serum β2-microglobulin in controls and cancer patients

Comparison of Serum β2-Microglobulin and Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) in the Follow-Up of Breast Cancer Patients

“…This finding may indicate a direct association of the serum ^-microglobulin level with malignant growth. However, a detailed interpretation is complicated due to an age effect (25,30), possibly induced by some clinical conditions associated with advanced age, including renal and immune disorders, known to markedly increase the serum level of 02-microglobulin (19,38,39). In contrast, the criteria of CEA as a tumour marker in breast cancer have been fully established in previous investigations (31,37) and the influence of distant spread of disease on the CEA serum concentration regardless of age became evident (28,27,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36).…”

“…In a variety of malignant disorders including carcinomas and lymphoid tumours an elevated |32-microglobulin serum level was recorded (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). However, the significance of these findings still remains questionable in view of the paucity of data relating the clinical course of malignant disease with the changes in the serum /32-microglobulin level.…”

Expression of beta-2-microglobulin by nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…This may be due to more active cellular proliferation in tumours with poorer histological differentiation. Similar findings however were not evident in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (Anderson et al, 1983 (Teasdal et al, 1977) and myeloma (Hagberg et al, 1983;Alexanian et al, 1985), and is thought to be due to increased cell turnover (Karlsson et al, 1980) and/or augmented immune response by lymphocytes to the neoplasm (Forman, 1982;Rashid et al, 1980;Karlsson et al, 1980;Shuster et al, 1976).…”

“…Cell membrane turnover is the principle source of P2M in blood, plasma and body fluids (Cresswell et al, 1974;Forman, 1982). Elevated serum levels has been found to be associated with increasing age, renal impairment (Bailey et al, 1978) and a variety of malignancies and appears to be a reflection of tumour load in patients with lymphoma (Anderson et al, 1983;Hagberg et al, 1983), myeloma (Child et al, 1983;Norfolk et al, 1980;Alexanian et al, 1985), lung cancer (Schweiger & Tocsanyi, 1978), breast cancer (Teasdal et al, 1977;Rashid et al, 1980), and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (Wennerberg et al, 1984 (Ho et al, 1976). Although P2M has a high sensitivity in metastatic disease, the clinical relevance in this situation is limited.…”

Renal disease in chronic arthritis of childhood. A study of urinary N‐acetyl‐β‐glucosaminidase and β2‐microglobulin excretion

“…Beta-2-microglobulin is a circulating low molecular weight protein of -12 kd. It is partially filtered by the glomerulus and is almost completely reabsorbed by the proximal tubule (18). Urinary excretion of &m is increased when proximal tubular cells are damaged (19).…”