The levels of alpha1-antitrypsin and alpha1-antichymotrypsin in the sera of patients with gastrointestinal cancers during diagnosis

Abstract

Protease inhibitors, such as alpha 1-antitrypsin (A1AT) and alpha 1-antichymotrypsin (A1AChy) have been considered in searching for new biochemical tumor markers useful at initial diagnosis, staging, and monitoring of cancer diseases after surgery. Levels of both antiproteases in serum of 32 patients with gastric cancer and 61 patients with colorectal cancer at initial diagnosis were studied. A significant increase of A1AT and A1AChy was found in the initial stages of both cancer groups as compared to healthy blood donors. A significant correlation between A1AT and A1AChy serum level and cancer stages was observed. The antiprotease serum concentrations progressively increased with increasing severity of gastric and colorectal cancers. The A1AChy level correlated with the histologic grade of both cancers and were higher in Grade III than in Grade II. These findings could be useful in the early diagnosis of gastric and colorectal cancers and in complex preoperative diagnostic procedure to estimate the stage of disease.

Host Markers and Prognosis in Recurrent Rectal Carcinomas Treated with Radiotherapy

“…Alpha, -globulins in serumelectrophoresis mainly represent acute-phase proteins, a, -antitrypsin, a, -acid glycoprotein, (orosomucoid) and a, -antichymotrypsin. In colorectal cancer, levels of all three correspond to tumor stages (28,29). Enough frozen sera were not available for further studies of the contribution from different proteins within the alpha-globulin groups.…”

Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Genotypes in Breast Cancer Patients

“…6) Serum level of A1AT was found to be increased in malignant diseases such as: Gastrointestinal cancer, prostate cancer, brain tumors, biliary tract cancer, pancreatic adenocarcinoma and breast cancer. [7][8][9][10][11][12] A significant correlation between A1AT serum levels and cancer stages was also observed. 7,13) An imbalance in the ratio between the levels of particular protease and protease inhibitor found to be responsible for the increase in tumor formation potential.…”

“…[7][8][9][10][11][12] A significant correlation between A1AT serum levels and cancer stages was also observed. 7,13) An imbalance in the ratio between the levels of particular protease and protease inhibitor found to be responsible for the increase in tumor formation potential. 6,7,14) Consequently, individuals with A1AT deficient alleles (Z, S and null) may be at greater risk of tumor invasion.…”

Structural Features, Biological Functions of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin and Contribution to Esophageal Cancer

“…In addition most malignancies exhibit increased production of inflammatory cytokines. This is also true for SCCE in which increased cyclooxigenase has been well documented [2,5,15,21,22,34,36,37,44].…”

“…AAT augments in the serum of gastrointestinal [15], prostate [16], brain [17] as well as biliary tract cancer [18] patients. Also reports indicate increased serum AAT in pancreatic adenocarcinoma [19], breast tumors [20], and esophageal cancer [21].…”