Serum ribonuclease in the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma and in monitoring chemotherapy.
Although serum ribonuclease (RNAase) activity (measured by Reddi's method [1]) was significantly higher in 24 patients with pancreatic carcinoma (mean 12.5 units) than in 93 control subjects (mean 5.0 units), 14 patients with chronic pancreatitis (mean 5.2 units) and 83 patients with other primary malignancies (mean 6.8 units), there was much overlap between the four groups and considerable (16.5%) inter-assay variation. Modification of the assay to eliminate a substrate inhibition effect gave acceptable inter-assay variation but abolished any significant difference between the four groups. Changes in serum RNAase activity did not reflect clinical changes in patients with pancreatic carcinoma followed serially during a trial of chemotherapy. The results indicate that serum RNAase is not a useful marker of pancreatic carcinoma.
D002277:Carcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D012260:Ribonucleases / Q000097:blood*
D012260:Ribonucleases