Presence of serum tripartite motif-containing 21 antibodies in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

SEREX has been applied to esophageal SCC, and the TRIM21 gene was identified as a novel SEREX antigen of esophageal SCC. The presence of s-TRIM21-Abs was confirmed by Western blotting using bacterially expressed TRIM21 gene product and was evaluated for clinicopathological significance in patients with esophageal SCC. s-TRIM21-Abs were detected in 18 (20%) of 91 patients with esophageal SCC but not in 42 healthy donors. The presence of s-TRIM21-Abs was partly associated with tumor size (P = 0.063) and poor survival (P = 0.067). To measure serum antibody levels, ELISA using purified recombinant TRIM21 protein was developed. The levels of s-TRIM21-Abs were significantly higher in patients with esophageal SCC than in healthy donors (P = 0.013). s-TRIM21-Abs may be a useful tumor marker to diagnose and predict disease progression in patients with esophageal SCC.