Independent behaviour of blood group A- and B-like activities in gastric carcinomata of blood group AB individuals

Abstract

SIMMONS and Perlmann¹ have provided evidence that the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) (ref. 2) is an incomplete blood group substance that, lacks the type 1 chain in most of the material studied. This deficiency was explained by deletion or repression in gastrointestinal carcinomata of genes and related transferases required for the synthesis of the blood group specific macromolecules. The chains which are not incorporated apparently accumulate as suggested by the work of Hakomori et al.³. Since A-, B-, H-, and Le^a-specific sequences in the type 2 chain were also missing in the CEA preparations¹ Simmons and Perlmann concluded that gastrointestinal adenocarcinomata may, in addition, have more specific defects localised at the ABO, H, and Le loci. Morphological studies dealing with the distribution of Wood group-like antigens in carcinomata^4–9 have provided further proof for the disturbance of the synthesis of blood group substance in neoplasia. Davidsohn⁶ reported a correlation between the histological degree of differentiation of the tumour and the presence of blood group substance and suggested an inverse relationship between the ability of a tumour to produce blood group substance and to metastasise. In the course of morphological studies dealing with the relationship between blood group substance and CEA in tumour tissue, we studied five specimens of surgically removed gastric carcinomata from patients with the blood group A₁B and we observed independent behaviour of the A and the B specificity in four of them in certain areas of the malignant growth.