RESUMO
Both experimental and epidemiological studies suggest that patients with autoimmune and other chronic inflammatory diseases are more prone to develop cancer. The aim of the present investigation is to find some typical differences between the content of lipid-bound sialic acid (LSA) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in sera from children with neoplastic diseases and juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA). Our results show 30% lower SOD activity in the sera from children with cancer compared with the sera from children with JCA. LSA levels 102% and 166% higher than in children with JCA were observed in the sera from children with blood and solid cancers, respectively. The relation LSA/SOD is about fivefold higher in children with cancers. A negative correlation (r = 0.720, P < 0.001) exists between LSA and SOD in sera from children with cancers. No such correlation was established in the group of children with JCA. We suppose that such differentiation disappears in the beginning of neoplastic process during prolonged therapy of autoimmune diseases. From our findings SOD and LSA appear to be putative markers of malignant disease with potential usefulness not only in JCA but also in other conditions associated with an increased risk of neoplastic development.
Assuntos
Artrite Juvenil/sangue , Neoplasias/sangue , Ácidos Siálicos/sangue , Superóxido Dismutase/sangue , Adolescente , Artrite Juvenil/patologia , Doenças Autoimunes/sangue , Doenças Autoimunes/patologia , Biomarcadores/sangue , Biomarcadores Tumorais/sangue , Transformação Celular Neoplásica/patologia , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Doença de Hodgkin/sangue , Humanos , Lactente , Linfoma não Hodgkin/sangue , Ácido N-Acetilneuramínico , Neoplasias/etiologia , Neoplasias/patologia , Neuroblastoma/sangue , Leucemia-Linfoma Linfoblástico de Células Precursoras/sangue , Fatores de Risco , Sensibilidade e EspecificidadeRESUMO
Through 1987 the authors observed and treated ten children with malignant urothelial cancers of the urinary tract: three malignant papillary cancers, six cancers of the bladder and one papilloma of the pyeloureteral segment. All were transitional cell cancers. The methods of diagnosis and treatment are described. The early results were good and the late results did not reveal any recurrence. All children are alive, except for one case with cancer of the bladder. Death in this case was due to lung cancer eighteen months after cystectomy. The authors analyse the aetiological factors involved in these tumours for the year 1987, taking into account the ecological-radioactive contamination of our country, after the accident of Chernobyl in 1986.
