Clinical Value of Urinary Polyamine Levels in Esophageal Cancers

Hiroshi Rikitake, Hideaki Yamana, Hiromasa Fujita, Genzan Shirozu, Taizo Minami, Teruo Kakegawa

First Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine

Urinary polyamine levels in 55 patients with thoracic esophageal cancer were measured by enzymic assay in order to investigate their usefulness. Moreover, in order to investigate the relationship between proliferative ability (and malignancy) and urinary polyamine levels, the rate of detection of a nuclear antigen in prolifelating cells by the monoclonal antibody Ki-67 and the nuclear DNA content were measured. The rate of positive urinary polyamine levels was 38.9%, slightly higher than that of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) or squamous cell carcinoma relted antigen (SCC). The diagnostic rate improved to 54.5%, and to 83.3% at the time of recurrence because of combination assay with CEA and SCC. The positive rate and the mean polyamine level increased in proportion to the depth of the cancer, while a correlation with the rate of cells positive to Ki-67 was not found. Concerning the DNA ploidy pattern, the rate of positive urinary polyamine in cases of DNA aneuploidy was higher than that in cases of DNA diploidy. These results suggested that urinary polyamine levels could become a useful monitoring marker in postoperative follow-up.

Key words
tumor marker, urinary polyamine levels, DNA index of esophageal cancer, monoclonal antibody Ki-67

Reprint requests
Hiroshi Rikitake First Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine
67 Asahi-machi, Kurume, 830 JAPAN

Accepted
September 12, 1990

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