BACKGROUND: Updated National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guidelines for the use of tumor markers in the clinic have been developed. METHODS: Published reports... Show moreBACKGROUND: Updated National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guidelines for the use of tumor markers in the clinic have been developed. METHODS: Published reports relevant to use of tumor markers for 4 cancer sites-liver, bladder, cervical, and gastric-were critically reviewed. RESULTS: alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) may be used in conjunction with abdominal ultrasound for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis associated with hepatitis B or C virus infection. AFP concentrations >200 mu g/L in cirrhotic patients with typical hypervascular lesions >2 cm in size are consistent with HCC. After a diagnosis of HCC, posttreatment monitoring with AFP is recommended as an adjunct to imaging, especially in the absence of measurable disease. Although several urine markers have been proposed for bladder cancer, none at present can replace routine cystoscopy and cytology in the management of patients with this malignancy. Some may, however, be used as complementary adjuncts to direct more effective use of clinical procedures. Although carcinoembryonic antigen and CA 19-9 have been proposed for use gastric cancer and squamous cell carcinoma antigen for use in cervical cancer, none of these markers can currently be recommended for routine clinical use. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of these recommendations should encourage optimal use of tumor markers for patients with liver, bladder, cervical, or gastric cancers. (C) 2009 American Association for Clinical Chemistry Show less
Janetzki, S.; Price, L.; Britten, C.M.; Burg, S.H. van der; Caterini, J.; Currier, J.R.; ... ; Hoos, A. 2010
The choice of serum for supplementation of media for T cell assays and in particular, Elispot has been a major challenge for assay performance, standardization, optimization, and reproducibility.... Show moreThe choice of serum for supplementation of media for T cell assays and in particular, Elispot has been a major challenge for assay performance, standardization, optimization, and reproducibility. The Assay Working Group of the Cancer Vaccine Consortium (CVC-CRI) has recently identified the choice of serum to be the leading cause for variability and suboptimal performance in large international Elispot proficiency panels. Therefore, a serum task force was initiated to compare the performance of commercially available serum-free media to laboratories' own medium/serum combinations. The objective of this project was to investigate whether a serum-free medium exists that performs as well as lab-own serum/media combinations with regard to antigen-specific responses and background reactivity in Elispot. In this way, a straightforward solution could be provided to address the serum challenge. Eleven laboratories tested peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from four donors for their reactivity against two peptide pools, following their own Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Each laboratory performed five simultaneous experiments with the same SOP, the only difference between the experiments was the medium used. The five media were lab-own serum-supplemented medium, AIM-V, CTL, Optmizer, and X-Vivo. The serum task force results demonstrate compellingly that serum-free media perform as well as qualified medium/serum combinations, independent of the applied SOP. Recovery and viability of cells are largely unaffected by serum-free conditions even after overnight resting. Furthermore, one serum-free medium was identified that appears to enhance antigen-specific IFN gamma-secretion. Show less
