We conclude that the induction of the CEA-gene expression by sodium butyrate in colorectal-cancer cells is mediated by both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms, with CEA mRNA stability as one of the major check-points.
To establish a sensitive assay for the specific detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-expressing tumor cells in the bone marrow of patients with colorectal cancer and other CEA-positive carcinomas.
Plasmid DNA encoding nontransforming tumor-associated antigens are in development with a National Institutes of Health-approved protocol for carcinoembryonic antigen in colorectal cancer patients.
Fifty four patients with colorectal cancer (26 men and 28 women, mean age 65, range 33-90 years) and 24 patients with non-malignant digestive disease were tested for p53 antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and for the carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19.9.
As the presence of CEA mRNA in the drainage venous blood is an indicator of the spread of tumor cells in patients with colorectal cancer, this assay can be used to assess the possible outcome of patients with colorectal cancer, providing one more tool for the physician-oncologist to use in designing appropriate treatments.
Nested RT-PCR that used primers for carcinoembryonic antigen, a marker for colorectal cancer, identified carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA in lymph nodes from only 1 of 10 patients with recurrent disease and those from 0 of 11 patients without recurrent disease.
We prospectively analyzed the circulating tumor burden in colorectal cancer patients using semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin 19 (CK19 ).
Clinical studies in colorectal cancer evaluating an ALVAC CEA candidate vaccine have shown that this approach is safe and can induce tumor-specific T cell responses.
The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) messenger RNA (mRNA) detection in peripheral blood samples from patients with colorectal cancer.
We have successfully completed a phase I and phase II clinical trials on immunotherapy of prostate cancer using naked DNA and adenoviral immunizations against the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and phase I clinical trial on colorectal cancer using naked DNA immunization against the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA).
Since serum CEA levels are elevated in patients with some malignant tumors including colorectal cancer, we applied the CEA promoter to chemo-radio-gene therapy, expecting tumor-specific expression of the CD gene.
The resulting hybrid mice developed gastrointestinal polyps in 6-8 months that progressed to invasive carcinomas with a similar pattern of dysplasia and CEA expression as observed in human colorectal cancer.
This indicates that quantification of CEA mRNA is useful for the evaluation of colorectal cancer progress and that the post-operative increase of CEA mRNA can be a predictive marker for micrometastasis.
CEA mRNA was undetectable in the blood of female blood donors but was detected in blood samples of 3.5% of hematological malignancies, 19.3% of colorectal cancer and 10% of breast cancer patients.