The prevalence of plasma heparin neutralizing activity and the effect of treatment on it in women with a gynecologic malignancy.
Plasma samples from some women with a variety of advanced gynecologic malignancies have been shown to neutralize exogenous heparin. The purposes of this investigation were to determine the prevalence of neutralizing activity in a referral population of women with a gynecologic malignancy and to determine whether the level of neutralizing activity is related either to histology or stage or whether it is affected by treatment. One hundred thirty-eight patients were studied over a 1-year interval; 121 had a documented malignancy, 16 were healthy, and one had a benign ovarian neoplasm. The mean heparin neutralizing activity in the healthy patients was 4.5% +/- 7% and it was 46.2% +/- 26% in the group with malignancy (p less than 0.0000, two-tailed). Seventy-five percent of all patients with malignancy had neutralizing activity greater than 25%. The percent of staged, untreated patients with neutralizing activity increased significantly with advancing stage (from 59% with stage I to 85% with stages III and IV disease). There was no significant relationship between neutralizing activity and histology, site of origin, or patient weight. In 10 patients in whom the disease outcome was clear, the change in neutralizing activity reflected (or predicted) the response to therapy. We conclude that heparin neutralizing activity is a generalized phenomenon in women with one of the malignancies studied, and it may potentially be useful in the evaluation of the patient's response to therapy.
Wentworth
P
P
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Iowa Medical School, Iowa City 52242.
Weiner
C
C
Abas
T
T
Turner
D
D
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D006493:Heparin / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy
D006493:Heparin