Common acute lymphoplastic leukemia antigen (CALLA) and intestinal metaplasia.

Intestinal metaplasia (IM) foci in 19 antral and 14 fundal gastric biopsies from patients with chronic atrophic gastritis were studied immunohistochemically for the presence of CALLA antigen. In only 2 cases were metaplastic glands completely negative, in 14 cases they were all positive, and in 17 cases variable proportions of CALLA positive and negative metaplastic glands were present. Complete IM seems to be less frequent than the incomplete type when the presence of CALLA is taken in consideration. CALLA is obviously a much better marker for complete or incomplete small IM. The possible importance of the presence of CALLA in IM foci for the future development of gastric cancer is discussed.