In a finding suggestive of muc4's potential value as a clinical cancer marker, Poster #3311 revealed that muc4 mRNA was detectable in the white blood cells of 18 of 27 PCA patients, but not in cells from healthy people, pancreatitis patients, or patients with cancers besides PCA. Thus, the muc4 assay's sensitivity rate was 67 percent, compared to rates of 69 to 93 percent for the CA19-9 assay found by other studies. Jörg Ringel, Batra's former postdoc, says, "We believe there is an interaction between cancer cells and white blood cells" that somehow prompts the lymphocytes to produce muc4. But the small study uncovered no differences in prognosis between patients whose cells were positive and negative for muc4 mRNA, he adds.
The adjacent poster, from the lab of Michael Bouvet, was devoted to another possible PCA marker: parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP). Bouvet, an assistant professor of surgery at the University ...
