title: The prevalence of variant alkaline phosphatase in hepatocellular carcinoma in southern African blacks.
abstract: The prevalence of variant alkaline phosphatase in the serum of 335 southern African blacks with hepatocellular carcinoma was determined using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The isoenzyme was detected in 2% (seven of 335) of the patients: it could not be found in the serum of 300 matched, healthy individuals or in 56 patients with various benign hepatic diseases. Variant alkaline phosphatase is thus of little use as a diagnostic marker of hepatocellular carcinoma in southern African blacks. The reported prevalence of this isoenzyme in hepatocellular carcinoma ranges between 3% and 31%. Higher frequencies usually are recorded in populations with a low incidence of the tumor, and the lowest frequencies have been found in Chinese patients. Our finding of variant alkaline phosphatase in only 2% of another high incidence population fits this trend. Patients with tumors that secreted the variant isoenzyme had a significantly higher serum total alkaline phosphatase activity than those with tumors lacking this property.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bukofzer
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kew
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rowe
mesh_terms: D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000378:metabolism*; D044383:Black People; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000201:enzymology*; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology*; D013019:South Africa
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase