Serum sialyltransferase and fucosyltransferase activities in patients with bronchial carcinoma.

Serum sialyltransferases and fucosyltransferases measured by an affinity adsorbent technique were studied in 27 exactly defined patients with malignant pulmonary diseases. Fourteen patients with benign pulmonary diseases and 56 with benign surgical diseases were used as controls. Enzyme activities were expressed as amounts of labeled precursor molecules incorporated into endogenous acceptors in counts per minute (cpm). The mean sialyltransferase activity was 583 cpm in bronchial carcinoma, 485 cpm in benign pulmonary disease and 428 cpm in benign surgical disease. The only statistically significant difference was between bronchial carcinoma and benign surgical disease. The mean fucosyltransferase activity was 813 cpm in bronchial carcinoma, 436 cpm in benign pulmonary disease and 255 cpm in benign surgical disease. All the differences were statistically significant. There were no statistically significant differences between the WHO histologic bronchial carcinoma groups. The correlation between sialyltransferase and fucosyltransferase activity in bronchial carcinoma was statistically significant (r = 0.59). In squamous cell carcinoma (N = 6), it was strongly significant (r = 0.96) and there was a significant correlation also in small cell carcinoma (N = 10; r = 0.79) but not in adenocarcinoma (N = 9; r = 0.30) and benign pulmonary disease (N = 14; r = 0.44). It is suggested that serum sialyltransferases and fucosyl transferases would not be decisive for diagnosis when used alone in bronchial carcinoma, but could be included in a screening test battery.