S. Yazawa et al., GENETIC AND ENZYMATIC EVIDENCE FOR LEWIS ENZYME EXPRESSION IN LEWIS-NEGATIVE CANCER-PATIENTS, Cancer research, 55(7), 1995, pp. 1473-1478
It has been observed that the frequency of individuals with Lewis-nega
tive erythrocytes is significantly higher in cancer patients than in h
ealthy controls. In this study, 20 of the 66 (30.3%) patients with var
ious cancers were typed as Lewis negative from their erythrocytes, whi
le the same frequency in healthy controls was 11.1%. These 20 patients
were divided into three groups based on the presence of Lewis blood g
roup antigens and alpha 1-->4-fucosyltransferase in their salivas: gro
up I, 6 patients who had both Lewis antigens and alpha 1-4-fucosyltran
sferase activity; group II, 8 patients who had no Lewis antigens but p
ossessed alpha 1-->4-fucosyltransferase activity; group III, 6 patient
s who had neither Lewis antigens nor alpha 1-->4-fucosyltransferase ac
tivity. The genotyping of Le genes by the PCR-RFLP methods, which have
been developed and established by us recently, demonstrated that all
14 patients from groups I and II possess Le gene homozygously (Le/Le)
or heterozg gously (Le/le), whereas all 6 patients from group III were
le/le homozygotes. Only the 6 patients from group In were identified
as the genuine Lewis-negative individuals. The immunohistochemical sta
ining of the colorectal tumors also showed that the Lewis antigens cou
ld be detected on the tumors from groups I and II but not from group I
II.