Comparison of circulating glycoprotein hormones and their subunits in patients with oat cell carcinoma of the lung and uraemic patients on chronic dialysis.

It has recently been suggested that the measurement of the glycoprotein hormones and their subunits in human serum may serve as biochemical markers of non-endocrine tumours. Using radioimmunoassays for LH, FSH, HCGbeta-, LHbeta- and the common alpha-subunit, significant differences in the levels of these substances could not be detected between patients with oat cell lung tumours and patients with chronic renal failure. However, compared to normal subjects the alpha-subunit levels in serum were elevated in 12% of the male and 30% of the female patients with oat cell carcinoma of the lund and in 80 and 50% of the male and female patients, respectively, with chronic renal failure. The LHbeta-subunit concentration was normal in all tumour patients and none of these patients had detectable (less than 4 ng/ml) levels of HCGbeta-subunit. While such measurements may be of value in relationship to particular neoplasms, it appears that raised levels of glycoproteins and their subunits may be found in other disease states.