Keratan sulfate levels in sera of patients bearing cartilage tumors.

Previous studies on chondrosarcoma proteoglycans have suggested that keratan sulfate content and average keratan sulfate chain length may be inversely related to the degree of cartilage tumor malignancy. The present study extended this work to an analysis of serum keratan sulfate in chondrosarcoma patients. Keratan sulfate levels of 24 adult patients bearing cartilage tumors were observed to be higher than that for age- and sex-matched controls. In nine of ten patients, keratan sulfate level exhibited a significant decrease following removal of the tumor. Analysis of five general hospital patients before and after surgery did not detect such a change. The data were suggestive of an inverse relationship between tumor histopathologic grade and presurgical serum keratan sulfate concentration. Finally, despite the wide range of serum values within each histopathologic tumor group, sequential serum keratan sulfate measurements may be useful in monitoring patients for secondary growth of chondrosarcoma tumors after primary excision.