ESTABLISHMENT OF A QUANTITATIVE ASSAY OF ABNORMAL GLYCOLIPID EXPRESSION IN ENDOMETRIAL CELLS, AND ITS DIAGNOSTIC-VALUE FOR ENDOMETRIAL CARCINOMA

We developed a new quantitative method for detecting abnormal glycolip id expression in endometrial cells using a monoclonal antibody (MSN-1) and analyzed the glycolipid antigen recognized by MSN-1 in 173 clinic al endometrial cell samples (66 normal endometria, 39 endometrial hype rplasias, and 68 endometrial adenocarcinomas), The mean glycolipid ant igen levels in normal endometrium, endometrial hyperplasia, and endome trial carcinoma were 0.42 +/- 1.37, 2.13 +/- 3.84, and 19.4 +/- 25.8 ( mean +/- SD) units, respectively, If the cutoff rate of this assay was fixed at 1.8 units, the positivity rates for patients with normal end ometrium, endometrial hyperplasia, and endometrial carcinoma were 6.1% (4/66), 28.2% (11/39), and 76.5% (52/68), respectively, In 35 endomet rial carcinoma patients, endometrial smears were simultaneously perfor med, and there were 22 positive smears (62.9%), When the cytological d iagnosis was combined with our assay, 94.3% (33/35) of the carcinomas were detected, Thus, this assay seems to be a supplementary diagnostic method for endometrial carcinoma.