One standard treatment option for advanced-stage
cancer is surgical resection of malignant
tumors following by
adjuvant chemotherapy and
chemoradiotherapy. Additionally,
neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be applied if required. During the time course of treatments, patients are generally followed by computed tomography (CT) surveillance, and by
tumor marker diagnosis. However, currently, early evidence of recurrence and/or
metastasis of
tumors with a clinically relevant
biomarker remains a major therapeutic challenge. In particular, there has been no validated
biomarker for predicting treatment outcomes in therapeutic settings. Recently, we have looked at glycoforms of serum α1-acid
glycoprotein (AGP) by using a crossed affinoimmunoelectrophoresis with two
lectins and an anti-AGP antibody. The primary
glycan structures of AGP were also analyzed by a mass spectrometer and a novel software in a large number of patients with various
cancers. Accordingly, the relative abundance of α1,3fucosylated
glycans in AGP (FUCAGP) was found to be significantly high in
cancer patients as compared with the healthy controls. Further, strikingly elevated levels of FUCAGP were found in patients with poor prognosis but not in patients with good prognosis. In the current study, levels of FUCAGP in serum samples from various
cancer patients were analyzed and 17 patients including 13 who had undergone
chemotherapy were followed for several years post operation. FUCAGP level determined diligently by using a mass spectrometer was found to change along with disease prognosis as well as with responses to treatments, in particular, to various
chemotherapies. Therefore, FUCAGP levels measured during following-up of the patients after operation appeared to be clinically relevant
biomarker of treatment intervention.