Correlation between serum immunosuppressive substance and clinico-pathological findings in patients with gastric carcinoma.

Serum levels of immunosuppressive substance (IS) were determined in 99 patients with gastric cancer and in 32 healthy individuals. The serum IS levels in the patients (769.6 +/- 314.8 micrograms/ml) were significantly higher than those in the healthy individuals (549.7 +/- 104.7 micrograms/ml). A multivariate analysis on the correlation between serum IS levels and clinicopathological findings in the patients disclosed that there was a close correlation between the serum IS levels and the depth of invasion, in particular, the prognostic serosal invasion, metastasis to the distal lymph nodes and peritoneal dissemination. There was, however, no correlation between the serum IS level and hepatic metastasis. Serum IS levels were higher in patients with well-differentiated adenocarcinoma than in those with poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma. A serum IS level higher than 1000 micrograms/ml indicates the possibility that the tumor is only palliatively resectable because of involvement of the distal lymph nodes or peritoneal dissemination.