SERUM CAROTENOIDS AND URIC-ACID LEVELS IN RELATION TO CANCER

We studied the levels of serum total carotenoids and uric acid in newl y diagnosed cancer cases. The levels of carotenoids and uric acid in s erum samples from 94 subjects with cancer affecting different sites (2 1 breast, 26 head and neck, 13 lung, 17 genitourinary and 17 other sit es) were compared with those of 92 controls who were matched for age, sex, Quetelet index and smoking history. Mean (+/- SE) levels of carot enoids were significantly lower among the cases than the controls (51. 41 +/- 3.32 vs. 102.75 +/- 4.52 mu g/dl, P < 0.001), when all the diff erent sites were considered together. The mean (+/- SE) uric acid leve ls among cases and controls were 5.14 +/- 0.16 mg/dl and 4.21 +/- 0.18 mg/dl (P < 0.001), respectively. It was of interest that patients wit h genitourinary cancer had the lowest serum carotenoids levels, and th e highest levels were found in patients with breast cancer. These resu lts are informative but do not establish a causal link. There was no a pparent association between serum urate levels and cancer site. The da ta presented here do not provide support for the protective antioxidan t properties of uric acid in cancer.