[Biological and clinical aspects of alpha 1-antitrypsin with special reference to malignant tumor processes]

The author makes a review of several biological and clinical aspects of alpha-1-antitrypsin and describes some personal experiments in animals. The values of serum alpha-1-antitripsin are 384.50 +/- 96.25 mg/100 ml in normal individuals, 479.19 +/- 163.76 mg/100 ml in several non-tumoral diseases, and 722.55 +/- 360.99 mg/100 ml in cancer patients. The changes in serum alpha-1-antitrypsin concentration may be useful to distinguish localized tumors (587.45 +/- 251.12 mg/100 ml), invasion of regional lymph nodes (650.9 +/- 280.51 mg/100 ml), and disseminated cancers (848.51 +/- 396.14 mg/100 ml), and to follow tumor evolution. Experiments with the Ehrlich ascites cancer of the mouse carried out by the author show that a correlation exists between tumor mass and serum antitryptic activity.