Humoral immune response to MUC1 and to the Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) glycotope in patients with gastric cancer: Relation to survival

Figures & data

Table I.  Antibody levels to MUC1, TF and αGal glycotope in patients and controls.

			Antibody levels (median, range)
Group	n	Age, median (range)	MUC1 IgG (R.U.)	MUC1 IgM (R.U.)	TF IgG (O.D.)	TF IgM (O.D.)	αGal IgG (O.D.)
Donors	100	51.2 (41–65)	63 (5–241)	40 (4–177)	0.37 (0.14–1.07)^¶	0.39 (0.01–1.27) (n = 83)	0.56 (0.16–3.35)^§ ***
Benign group	199	55.0 (40–81)	67 (3–605) p = 0.035	33 (1–198) p = 0.005	0.13 (0.02–3.12) p < 0.0001	0.13 (0.01–1.04) p < 0.0001	0.78 (0.15–3.12) p = 0.03
Non-atrophic gastritis	30	53.5 (40–73)	66 (7–418)	33 (3–103)	0.18 (0.01–3.12) p < 0.0001	0.18 (0.14–0.25) p < 0.0001	0.83 (0.24–3.12)
Atrophic gastritis	41	58.0 (41–81)	65 (6–357) p = 0.0271	36 (9–101)	0.12 (0.02–2.93) p < 0.0001	0.16 (0.0–0.53 p < 0.0001	0.74 (0.16–2.93)
Ulcus ventriculi	59	56.0 (42–79)	79 (3–485) p = 0.015	34 (4–198)	0.09 (0.03–1.89) p < 0.0001	0.13 (0.0–0.46) p < 0.0001	0.73 (0.17–2.78) p = 0.21
Ulcus duodeni	69	52.0 (40–78)	65 (22–438)**	28 (1–123) p = 0.0004	0.13 (0.04–3.04) p < 0.0001	0.12 (0.01–1.04) p < 0.0001	0.83 (0.21–3.05) p = 0.05
Gastric cancer	247	65.0 (40–82)	83 (13–769) p < 0.0001	31 (1–181) p < 0.001	0.28 (0.01–3.13) p = 0.002	0.27 (0.01–1.3) p < 0.0001 (n = 183)	0.71 (0.16–2.45)
stage I	66	63.0 (40–78)	94 (14–769) p = 0.0002	32 (12–181) p = 0.018	0.29 (0.03–1.83) p = 0.01	0.21 (0.0–0.46) p < 0.0001 (n = 42)	0.65 (0.19–1.80)
stage II	43	65.0 (41–80)	78 (16–370) p = 0.004	23 (8–128) p = 0.007	0.32 (0.03–3.14) p = 0.01	0.28 (0.0–1.01) p < 0.003 (n = 42)	0.76 (0.16–1.7)
stage III	81	62.9 (41–82)	78 (16–769) p = 0.021	34 (3–103)	0.3 (0.017–1.71) p = 0.02	0.26 (0.0–1.3) p < 0.0002 (n = 57)	0.72 (0.17–2.45)
stage IV	57	66.0 (42–80)	86 (13–595) p = 0.0004	23 (1–153) p = 0.0003	0.24 (0.14–0.87) p = 0.0008	0.27 (0.0–0.87) p < 0.0006 (n = 42)	0.69 (0.2–1.56)

R.U. relative units; O.D. – optical density; “n” in brackets represents number of individuals tested for TF IgM antibody level.

^¶n = 49 tested; ^§n = 60 tested.

p-values are shown only for significant differences compared to blood donors group as calculated by Mann-Whitney U- test.

**significantly lower than in patients with gastric cancer (p = 0.04).

***significantly lower compared to the benign group (p < 0.03).

Figure 1.  MUC1 IgG and IgM antibody levels (medians, ranges and quartiles) in patients with gastric cancer (n = 247), chronic gastroduodenal diseases (n = 199) and blood donors (n = 100) p-values are calculated by Mann-Whitney U test. *significantly higher than in blood donors (p < 0.0001); **significantly lower compared to blood donors group (p = 0.005); ***significantly lower compared to blood donors group (p = 0.0002).

Figure 2.  Correlation between the levels of MUC1 IgG and TF IgG antibodies for stage I + stage II patients with gastric cancer.

Figure 3.  Probability of survival (Kaplan-Meier method) of gastric cancer patients in relation to TF IgG (A, B) and MUC1 IgG (C, D) antibody levels: (combined groups: stage I-IV (A, C) and stage I-III (B, D) Dark line – strong responders (O.D. or R.U. values above the median); Dotted line – weak responders (O.D. or R.U. values below or equal to the median).

Figure 4.  Probability of survival (Kaplan-Meier method) of gastric cancer patients by stage in relation to MUC1 IgG antibody levels. Dark line – strong responders (R.U. values above the median); Dotted line – weak responders (R.U. values below or equal to the median).

Figure 5.  Probability of survival (Kaplan-Meier) of stage I-III gastric cancer patients in relation to TF IgG antibody level. Dark line – strong responders (O.D. values above the median); Dotted line – weak responders (O.D. values below or equal to the median).