Correlation of high lactate levels in human cervical cancer with incidence of metastasis.

Tissue concentrations of ATP, glucose, and lactate in cervical cancer biopsies that were taken before a conventional radiation treatment were imaged quantitatively with a bioluminescence technique. Concomitantly, a number of clinically relevant data, such as local tumor control, patient survival, metastatic spread, etc., were documented. There was no correlation between staging or grading and any of the metabolic parameters measured. Local correlations between ATP, glucose, and lactate on a pixel-to-pixel basis were generally positive, with respective Spearman's correlation coefficients being lower in patients without clinically documented metastasis compared to those with metastatic spread. Lactate concentrations were significantly higher and scattered over a wider range in tumors with metastatic spread in comparison to malignancies in patients without metastasis. Thus, high local lactate levels of > or = 20 mumole/g appear to be associated with a high risk of metastasis, at least in the ten human cervical tumors investigated to date.