SERUM ADENOSINE-DEAMINASE AND TOTAL SUPEROXIDE-DISMUTASE ACTIVITIES BEFORE AND AFTER SURGICAL REMOVAL OF CANCEROUS LARYNGEAL TISSUE

In this study, pre- and post-operative serum activities of adenosine d eaminase (ADA) and total superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes were measu red in patients with squamous cell laryngeal cancer. Activities of bot h enzymes were found to be higher in cancerous patients compared to th e controls. No significant differences were found however between pre- and post-operative values for both enzymes in the patient group. It h as been suggested that ADA and SOD enzymes leak from the cancerous lar yngeal tissues into the blood stream. The absence of differences betwe en pre- and post-operative serum enzyme activities has two possible ex planations: Firstly, removal of previously released enzymes from the b lood stream takes a much longer period than one month; and secondly, c ancerous laryngeal tissue is not the only source of the enzymes mentio ned even after removal of cancerous tissue by surgical operation, othe r sources such as adjacent tissues and/or metastatic tissues etc, stil l release these enzymes into the blood stream.