A PEPTIDE-LIKE PUTATIVE MARKER SUBSTANCE OF LARYNGEAL-CANCER PATIENTS

Acidic ethanol precipitation, gel-filtration chromatography (Sephadex G-25) and capillary isotachophoresis were performed on serum and tumor tissue samples from eight patients with stage III and IV laryngeal ca ncers. An anionic 0.3-5 kDA molecular mass substance that was probably peptide was recorded in both the serum and cancer tissue, but could n ot be shown in the serum of five control subjects. This substance disa ppeared from the sera of four patients after total laryngectomy and th ey have now lived without tumor recurrence for about 2 years. Three of the other four patients developed tumor recurrences while one patient has remained tumor-free. Our findings support a hypothesis that the p eptide-like molecule is characteristic of laryngeal cancer and can pos sibly be used for monitoring the disease.