Thyroid autoantibodies and thyroid function in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) patients often present high serum titres of several autoantibodies including autoantibodies against beta-islet cells and insulin. In the present study we examined with an hemagglutination method the sera of 33 patients with PA for the presence of both anti-mitochondrial and anti-thyroglobulin antithyroid autoantibodies (ATA). Twenty-six surgical patients with other non-malignant gastrointestinal tract (GI) disease (chronic pancreatitis or hernia) and 40 healthy volunteers were used as controls. Eight of the 33 PA patients were found to have ATA autoantibodies, whereas only one patient with chronic pancreatitis and 2 normal individuals had high serum ATA titres. The difference between the PA patients and either of the control groups was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The production of autoantibodies could be attributed to impaired immunoregulation caused by the malignant cells.