The clinical and physiological implications of hepatoma B12-binding proteins.

A serum B12-binding protein with increased sialic acid content (termed hepatoma B12-binding protein) that causes elevations of serum B12 and unsaturated B12-binding capacity has been found in some patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (hepatoma). We now report another patient with hepatoma with initial near-normal, unsaturated B12-binding capacity that increased 400-fold as the disease progressed and then fell 50% with response to chemotherapy. A perfusate of the tumor in the liver had 5 times more B12-binding protein than did the serum and was immunologically the same as the serum hepatoma B12-binding protein isolated from previous cases. A cell line derived from hepatoma produced significant amounts of B12-binding protein similar to hepatoma B12-binding protein, whereas cell lines from normal liver and other neoplasia did not. The hepatoma sera, perfusate, and media from the hepatoma cell line contained elevated sialyltransferase activity. These data suggest that some hepatomas produce increased hypersialylated B12-binding protein that is cleared slowly from the plasma and accumulates there as hepatoma B12-binding protein.