| Abstract: |
Blood group A, B, H, and Lewis antigens are a family of genetically and biosynthetically related carbohydrate specificities that serve as allogeneic, developmental, and differentiation markers. Their expression is governed by the genetic makeup of the person and in individual tissues by the action of the secretor gene products and other control mechanisms that are poorly understood. In malignancy many of these normal controls become disarranged, and altered expression of blood group specificities results. These include overproduction of some antigens, a tendency to synthesize precursor structures, fetal or inappropriate tissue expression, activation of the secretor gene in nonsecretor persons, and synthesis of genetically inappropriate specificities. An analysis of these changes in tumors provides useful information in helping to understand malignant change and on a more practical level will lead to an improved immunopathologic classification of tumors, to methods for serum diagnosis, and possibly to new therapeutic approaches. (76 references.) |
