[Oncopterin in clinical diagnosis]

In the submitted review the author presents hitherto published data on the new tumour marker oncopterin which was assessed in urine of patients with different types of tumours. Oncopterin is a derivative of endogenous pterins and trimethylene amine needed for the synthesis of polyamines which are synthetized specially in proliferating cells. Urinary oncopterin excretion can be assessed by high resolution liquid chromatography (HPLC). As test for the presence of malignant growth it seems to have a relatively high specificity.