ADCP is a dimeric
glycoprotein of about 200KD, for which the physiological role is still obscure. This
protein occurs mainly in a membrane bound form in various human tissues. In this paper we review the current literature on ADCP in
cancer studies. Soluble ADCP was described to be consistently decreased or absent in
cancers of lung, liver, kidney and colon. These findings could not be confirmed by immunohistochemical and quantitative biochemical studies in a series of colorectal-, prostatic-, and
renal carcinomas. Only in a third of these
tumors a decrease could be demonstrated, whereas in the other cases unaltered or even increased amounts were observed. However, in virally transformed human fibroblasts a consistent decrease or complete absence of ADCP was seen, while primary fibroblasts were found to contain high amounts of this
protein. Recently, the use of ADCP as a
differentiation marker in
colonic cancer has been advocated. Furthermore the presence of ADCP in the serum of
renal adenocarcinoma patients was found to be indicative of a better chance of five year survival. These studies suggest that ADCP may be a
differentiation marker useful for immunohistochemical characterization of colonic and
renal carcinomas as well as a
serum marker useful for follow-up studies of these types of
cancer, analogous to CEA. Finally, ADCP has been found to be selectively expressed by certain T-cell subsets and henceforth may be useful in the studies on
leukemias.