Tennessee antigen: its value in the monitoring of patients with colorectal cancer

Third Gordon Hamilton-Fairley Memorial Lecture. Tumour markers--where do we go from here?

An overview of the application of markers for solid tumours is presented. Some of the potential problems with general cancer tests are considered as well as the ways in which the more specific markers have been applied. The limited specificities of markers defined so far remain a serious limitation but they have found useful clinical application. Their use in radioimmunolocalisation provides an interesting challenge to the physical methods of tumour localisation and the possibilities of drug targeting by antibodies are as exciting as the difficulties are formidable. It is, I suggest, a field that will continue to evolve and be productive.

Peripheral blood lymphocyte levels in large-bowel cancer

The relationship between peripheral blood lymphocyte levels and monitoring and assessment of prognosis of patients with large-bowel cancer has been assessed. There does not appear to be a correlation between the absolute lymphocyte count and the state of disease. Furthermore, the preresection and postresection lymphocyte levels do not accurately predict the likelihood of recurrent cancer subsequently developing, and the serial monitoring of patients with peripheral blood lymphocyte levels adds no important new information to clinical follow-up.