Shared tumor antigens in colorectal carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors.

ND4 monoclonal antibody recognizes a tumor marker found on poorly differentiated colorectal cancer. We demonstrate its expression in 25% of gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors, which also express CEA in 37% of cases. As in colorectal cancer the ND4 marker is predominantly membrane bound in a colonic neuroendocrine tumor cell line, LCC-18 (p < 0.05). The ND4 marker is absent in a poorly differentiated colorectal cancer cell line that does not express CEA or other tumor antigens. Shed antigen in the serum of patients with neuroendocrine tumors is detected in only five of seven patients with the carcinoid syndrome and two of four of those without evidence of the syndrome. However, the reactivity was less in the patients with localized disease, and this test is unlikely to be of diagnostic utility in this group of patients. The sharing of this antigen in colorectal cancer and neuroendocrine tumors is not universal, but does support the common-cell progenitor theory for the origin of these tumors.