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Plasma purine nucleoside phosphorylase in cancer patients
Elton L L Roberts1, Russell P Newton, Alan T Axford
1Biochemistry Department, Pathology Department, Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 1ER, UK. elton.roberts@ceredigion-tr.wales.nhs.uk
Background:
Purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) is the purine salvage enzyme that converts guanosine to guanine and inosine to hypoxanthine.
Methods:
279 samples from patients with differing cancers were collected during treatment at both pre- and post-dose stages for plasma PNP activity and compared with a normal population.
Results:
Normal plasma PNP activity was found to be 3.2+/-1.4 U/l (n=55) as compared with the cancer patients (pre-dose 12.3+/-7.4 U/l [n=215] and post-dose 11.2+/-5.9 U/l [n=64]). Levels of plasma PNP did not differ greatly between the different cancer types but were on average four times greater than that found in the reference population.
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