GASTRIN-LEVELS IN COLORECTAL-CANCER

Our objective was to determine whether colorectal cancer tissue synthe sizes and secretes biologically active gastrins resulting in a rise of gastrin levels in patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon. Blood sa mples for gastrin determination were taken from the artery feeding, an d from the vein draining colon tumors, from a vein draining an uninvol ved colon segment and from a peripheral vein. Tissue gastrin levels we re measured in tumor tissues and normal mucosa taken by colonoscopic b iopsy from colon cancer patients and healthy controls. The setting was a university hospital research laboratory. We had seventeen patients with colorectal cancer and 23 controls. No significant difference was found in peripheral venous blood gastrin levels between the cancer and the control groups. Serum gastrin concentration was not significantly different in the arterial blood which supplied the tumor area, the ve nous blood draining the tumor, the ''uninvolved'' mucosa or the contro l normal epithelium. Cancer tissue gastrin levels were lower than thos e measured in biopsies of uninvolved mucosa from cancer patients and n ormal controls. The present results show no rise of gastrin blood leve ls in patients with colon cancer, nor any evidence of gastrin-increase d synthesis by the tumors.