Soybean agglutinin binding as a useful prognostic indicator in stomach cancer

Abstract

Soybean agglutinin (SBA)-binding carbohydrate expression was studied immunohistochemically in 353 primary gastric carcinomas. The overall rate of positive SBA staining was 23% (81/353), and positive SBA staining was significantly correlated with tumor size, macroscopic tumor type, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and venous invasion (P < 0.05). Moreover, patients with tumors that were immunoreactive for SBA demonstrated significantly higher survival (P < 0.01). From these findings we conclude that careful follow-up and intense postoperative therapy are required for patients with gastric cancers that lack immunoreactivity for SBA.

The Anticarcinogenic Potential of Soybean Lectin and Lunasin

“…37 They are also involved in a variety of biomedical applications, 37,38 including fractionation of bone marrow cells, 39 the treatment of ulcerative colitis, 40 and other biologic uses, 41,42 such as cancer diagnosis and treatment. Lectins have been used as diagnostic reagents for stomach cancer, 43 in cancer treatment combined with anticancer drugs, 44 and in the removal of tumor cells from bone marrow, 45,46 as well as in targeted drug delivery treatments. 47…”

“…59,60 Numerous experimental and clinical studies have been conducted to investigate the biologic behavior of malignant cells, and have shown that soybean lectin is a useful prognostic indicator in stomach cancer. 43 Cellular interactions appear to play an important role in the metastatic process and the clinical behavior of tumors and may be mediated partially by cellsurface proteins that are closely associated with the transformation of cells. Lectins that bind speci cally to certain polysaccharides can be conjugated to histochemical markers, making it possible to study the patterns of glycoconjugate expression by cells and tissues, as well as the alterations, which may occur during malignant transformation.…”

The development, characterization, and demonstration of a novel strategy for purification of recombinant proteins expressed in plants

“…Benbassat et al (1987) reported the use of fluorescein-isothiocyanate-conjugated SBA to assess the stage of lymphoid cell differentiation in human leukemic-lymphoma cell lines and showed that a gradual increase in SBA labelling was correlated with stages of the cell differentiation as reflected by increased fluorescence intensity. High affinity binding of fluorescent SBA conjugates to other types of cancer cells has also been shown, including mouse lymphoma T cells (Reese and Chow 1992) and human gastric carcinoma cells (Terashima et al 1997). Fluorescent SBA conjugates are also reported to selectively bind to murine glial cells (Luth et al 1992) and the zona pellucida of the mammalian egg (Aviles et al 1997).…”

Lymph Node Metastasis-Related Carbohydrate Epitopes of Gastric Cancer with Submucosal Invasion

“…5 Recent studies using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have demonstrated an intimate relationship between the aggressive growth of gastric cancer and expression of carbohydrate epitopes, such as sialyl Tn (STn) and sialyl-Lewis a (SLe a ) antigens. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] On the other hand, there is little information about lectin-binding carbohydrates, [14][15][16] even though dynamic changes in carbohydrate expression on epithelial cells of the gastric wall have been demonstrated by lectin histochemistry. [17][18][19][20][21] Furthermore, none of the studies using mAbs have focused on early gastric cancer.…”