QUANTITATION OF POLYMORPHIC EPITHELIAL MUCIN - A CHALLENGE FOR BIOCHEMISTS AND IMMUNOLOGISTS

Polymorphic epithelial mucin (PEM) is a heavily glycosylated protein p resent at the apical surface of glandular epithelial cells which is sh ed into the lumen of epithelial tissue. In carcinomas cell polarisatio n is lost, PEM is overexpressed and found on the entire cell surface. High amounts of PEM are shed into the circulation of cancer patients. CA 15.3 is the first commercial assay for the detection of PEM. After roughly one decade of use in clinical practice it is considered valuab le for breast cancer therapy monitoring and, in the follow up, for ear ly detection of metastatic disease. The extreme polymorphism of this m olecule, with its varying number of multiple epitopes and tremendous v ariation in glycosylation which can mask catcher/tracer epitopes, impa irs its precise measurement. A further impediment is complex formation with autoantibodies, as revealed by a recently developed assay.