Measurement of Serum Neopterin Levels in Patients with Gastrointestinal Tumors -Correlation with Performance Status Features-

Hiromi Iwagaki, Akio Hizuta, Noriaki Tanaka, Kunzo Orita

First Department of Surgery, Okayama University School of Medicine

Interferon gamma produced by T cells activates monocyte/macrophages, which in turn release neopterin. Thus, the measurement of serum neopterin (NP) can be considered an indirect evaluation of monocyte/macrophage function. The serum neopterin (NP) levels were determined in 66 specimens of 28 patients with gastrointestinal tumors, and 10 healthy controls. The NP level of healthy controls was 3.7±1.2 pmol/ml (mean±SD). The NP levels of PS (performance status) 1,2 and 3,4 patients were 8.9±1.0 pmol/ml and 24.7±4.7 pmol/ml, respectively. The NP level of patients with gastrointestinal tumors was significantly higher (p<0.01) than the control value. These results indicated that serum NP level significantly correlated with disease severity and performance status of cancer patients. Tumor markers including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9), C-reactive protein (CRP) and immunosuppressive acidic protein (IAP) were also analyzed in the sera of patients. The NP level was found to be proportional (p<0.05) to the values of CA19-9, CRP and IAP. These results suggested that an increased NP level might be due to activation of T-lymphocytes responding to enhanced tumor cell proliferation.

Key words
neopterin, performance status, cancer patients

Reprint requests
Hiromi Iwagaki The First Department of Surgery, Okayama University Medical School
2-5-1 Shikatacho, Okayama-shi, 700 JAPAN

Accepted
June 14, 1993

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