Activities of adenosine deaminase, 5'-nucleotidase, guanase, and cytidine deaminase enzymes in cancerous and non-cancerous human breast tissues.

We measured activities of some DNA turnover enzymes in 9 breast tissues with stage II cancer, 6 breast tissues with stage IIIa cancer, and 9 non-cancerous adjacent breast tissues from the same patients with stage II cancer. We found higher Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) and 5'-Nucleotidase (5'NT) and lower Guanase (GUA) activities in the cancerous tissues compared with the non-cancerous ones. No meaningful differences were however found between Cytidine Deaminase (CD) activities. Regarding the correlation analysis, positive correlations were established between ADA and 5'NT activities of the cancerous tissues (r = 0.45 for the tissues with stage II and r = 0.60 for the tissues with stage IIIa cancer). No meaningful correlations were however found between other enzyme activities. Relating to activity ratios, no meaningful differences were found between ADA/5'NT values in the tissues. GUA/CD ratios were however lower and the other ratios higher in the cancerous tissues. Results indicated that ADA and 5'NT activities increased and GUA activity decreased in the cancerous breast tissues but CD activities did not change in the tissues affected. It has been suggested that increased ADA and 5'NT together with decreased GUA activities might be a physiologic attempt of the cancer cells to provide more substrates needed by cancer cells to accelerate the salvage pathway activity. Furthermore, high ADA activity might also play part in the detoxication process of high amounts of toxic adenosine and deoxyadenosine substrates produced from accelerated purine metabolism in the cancerous tissues.