Paraneoplastic aqueous flare intensity in patients with esophagogastric carcinoma

A study was conducted of anterior chamber aqueous flare intensity in patients with esophagogastric malignancies. The subjects included 79 patients with upper alimentary tract malignancies (69 scheduled for surgery for the underlining cancer and 10 with metastases), 47 patients with stable ocular sarcoidosis, and 46 age-matched healthy volunteers. A laser cell-flare meter was used to measure flare intensity in patients and healthy controls. The average flare intensity before surgery in patients with cancer was 10.7 +/- 4.9 photon counts/millisecond (pc/ms), which was not statistically significantly different from that in patients with sarcoidosis (11.9 +/- 8.3 pc/ms) but was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than that in healthy volunteers (4.3 +/- 1.3 pc/ms). The average flare intensity after surgery in patients with carcinomas was 7.5 +/- 2.5 pc/ms, which was significantly (p < 0.0001) lower than the preoperative value. These results suggest that alterations in aqueous flare intensity might represent a paraneoplastic syndrome in patients with esophagogastric carcinoma. If so, measurements of flare intensity may be helpful in the differential diagnosis and evaluation of the disease course of digestive tract cancer.