title: Pterin-6-aldehyde, a cancer cell catabolite: identification and application in diagnosis and treatment of human cancer.
abstract: Active folic acid degradation with the formation pterin-6-aldehyde is a previously undescribed characteristic of cancer cells in tissue culture. Neither normal adult epithelial and fibroblastic cells nor human amniotic cells nor mouse embryonic fibroblasts degrade folic acid to a measurable degree. Twenty-nine patients whose diagnoses were not revealed until after the test of their first morning urine for pterin-6-aldehyde was completed were studied for the presence or absence of pterin-6-aldehyde by thin-layer chromatography. Pterin-6-aldehyde was found in the urine at about 300 nmol/ml or greater only in those 13 patients with a tissue diagnosis of cancer. When the cancer was totally resected, the pterin-6-aldehyde was no longer found in the urine postoperatively. Pterin-6-aldehyde is not found in the urine of healthy patients at this level of detection unless their diets are supplemented with folic acid.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002460:Cell Line; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy / Q000652:urine; D011622:Pterins / Q000652:urine*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D011622:Pterins; C005926:2-amino-4-hydroxy-6-formylpteridine; D005492:Folic Acid
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