[Clinical significances of tissue polypeptide antigen in patients with gynecological malignancies]

Recently, tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) has become of general interest as one of the new tumor-related antigens. In this study, TPA was measured mainly in patients with various gynecological malignancies by radioimmunoassay, and serum TPA levels above 110u/l were considered pathological. The serum TPA level in normal women was 66 +/- 21 u/l (mean +/- S.D.) and the positive rate was 0 percent. Serum TPA levels in patients with cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine sarcoma (181 +/- 262, 117 +/- 49, 217 +/- 215, 142 +/- 49u/l) and positive rates (55, 40, 53, 75 percent) were significantly higher than those in normal women. Serum TPA levels in patients with advanced or recurrent diseases had a tendency to show highly positive. In all of 13 patients with positive TPA, serum TPA levels were significantly reduced and turned negative after the appropriate treatments. However, among our follow-up patients, serum TPA levels were often positive even when there was no clinical evidence of recurrence. Conclusion; serum TPA measurement could be a useful subordinate tumor marker in many patients with gynecological malignancies, even though careful judgement is necessary to interpret positive TPA.