[Gangliosides in the serum in lung carcinoma]

In this study, tumor and serum gangliosides were analyzed in patients bearing lung planocellular carcinoma (LPC) before and after operative therapy. Tumor tissue, pathohistologically characterized as carcinoma planocellulare corneum (Ca. epidermoide, type 8070/3, WHO, Geneva, 1981), showed an elevated concentration of gangliosides in comparison to normal tung tissue. The composition of gangliosides in LPC tissue varied from one tumor sample to another, however, two general features were observed. First, LPC contained an increased amount of GM3 and a decreased amount of GD3 gangliosides. Second, an elevated proportion of gangliosides migrating as polysialogangliosides (x3, x5, x6) characterized the majority of LPC tissues. On the other hand, serum of patients with LPC contained an elevated amount of gangliosides (15.8 +/- 0.3 mumols/L) in comparison to control serum (6.1 +/- 0.8 mumols/L) (P less than 0.01). However, analyzing the composition of serum gangliosides by thin-layer chromatography, all serum gangliosides were more or less elevated. By day 21 after the surgical removal of LPC, serum gangliosides dropped by approximately 50% approaching the normal values. It seems that elevated serum gangliosides in LPC patients were secreted from carcinoma cells, because they normalized after surgical removal of LPC. Thus, serum gangliosides might be a useful biochemical tool for diagnosis and therapy monitoring of this carcinoma.