Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Cancer Research, Therapy and Control, cilt.11, sa.2, ss.193-195, 2001 (SCI-Expanded)
Arginase (Arg) enzyme is a potent immune inhibitor which is known to be expressed in cancer cells. This study aims to investigate serum Arg activities in gastric cancer patients with and without chemotherapy and to establish possible effects of chemotherapy on serum Arg activity. Serum Arg activity was measured in 36 gastric cancer patients without chemotherapy, 10 patients with chemotherapy and, in 23 healthy control subjects. Serum Arg activity of the cancer group without chemotherapy was significantly higher than that of the controls (0.56 ± 0.19 IU/L vs 0.43 ± 0.18 IU/L, p<0.005). Although Arg activity was lower in cancer group with chemotherapy compared with cancer group without chemotherapy (0.47 ± 0.11 IU/L. vs 0.56 ± 0.19 IU/L), the difference was not statistically significant. Results suggest that increased serum Arg activity in gastric cancer patients, possibly due to leakage from the cancerous gastric tissue might favour tumorigenesis. Chemotherapy seems to lower this leakage to some extent. Decreased serum Arg levels in gastric cancer patients after chemotherapy may be an indicator of chemotherapeutic efficiency which may at the same time contribute to improve immune state of these patients.