Measurement of Serum Ferritin in Various Digestive Diseases by Reversed Passive Hemagglutination Using Anti-Human Placental Ferritin Antiserum

In 226 cases of various digestive diseases including 30 benign cases, 170 malignant cases and 26 recurrent cases, we determined the serum ferritin values by using antiplacental ferritin antiserum to provoke reversed passive hemagglutination and we studied the utility and limitations of the method. We also investigated to what extent a combinaion assay for serum ferritin and blood carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or serum ferritin and serum alpha-fetoprotein would increase the rate of cancer diagnosis. The frequency of abnormal serum ferritin values was 10 % in the benign cases and 7.8%, 15.6 % and 28.6%, respectively, in cases of primary gastric, colorectal and esophageal cancer. Thus, there was no significant difference between the benign and the malignant cases. However, in the cases of re-current gastric and colorectal cancer, the rates were 44.4 % and 55.8%, re-spectively, exhibiting a significantly higher rate than in the primary cases. In pancreatic cancer and primary hepatoma the rates were 50 % and 66.7%