[Causes of a nitrogen balance disorder in patients with cancer of the large intestine].

Assays were made of blood serum proteins, final nitrogen products of urine and faeces in 115 patients with colonic cancer and in 19 patients with polyposis. The nitrogen balance was studied in 59 rectal cancer patients prior to and after the operation. In a group of patients with the malignant tumor the endogenic protein hyperexcretion was found as well as a reduced serum proteins level and an associated dependence of hypoproteinemia on the degree of their loss with faeces. A negative nitrogen balance was noted in patients with cancer. Surgical intervention, purulent infection may aggravate this condition. The radical treatment of colonic cancer results in a gradual normalization of nitrogen-protein metabolism.