Evaluation of radioimmunoassay and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for feto protein

Despite intense effort, very few specific protein tumour markers have been discovered for specific malignancies. Of those available, Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA), Alpha feto protein (AFP) and β sub unit of human chorionic gonadotrophin (βHCG) have afforded themselves to clinical assay for progression of malignancies and effectiveness of therapy. Clinical assay of AFP was limited to conventional radioimmunoassay (RIA) until the recent introduction of solid phase RIA and enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) systems. A comparative evaluation of the RIA and ELISA protocols for AFP is presented in this paper. (author)