Leukocyte Alkaline Phosphatase as a Probable Predictor of the Metastatic State in Breast and Colon Cancer Patients

Abstract

Leukocyte alkaline phosphatase (LAP) score in peripheral blood was determined in 45 new cancer patients, 30 with breast cancer and 15 with colorectal cancer, with nonmetastatic disease. The LAP scores were performed immediately after diagnosis or surgery, and later at intervals of 1-3 months, until clinical detection of metastases. The preliminary data presented here show that there may be some utility in measuring LAP score in patients with solid tumors on a serial basis to detect evidence of metastatic disease prior to its clinical recognition. In 22 out of 30 breast cancer patients and 11 out of 15 colon cancer patients, there were ‘alarming signals’ of metastases (defined in this study) in the data taken before the checkup in which metastases were diagnosed by other methods. We conclude that LAP scores should be introduced into routine checkup of breast and colon cancer patients and could be a helpful nonspecific additional element in detecting earlier metastatic disease during the follow-up of a patient. As an extrapolation from this study we suggest that work should be undertaken to explore the possibility that a sudden rise of LAP score in an otherwise healthy person, who has no known reason for an elevated LAP score, might be the very first measurable sign of cancer.

Chemiluminescent determination of leukocyte alkaline phosphatase: an advantageous alternative to the cytochemical assay

“…These isoenzymes are widely distributed in several tissues, including bone, liver, placenta, and granulocytes, and as such they are very useful as biological markers of several pathological states (14). In oncohematology there are many applications for LAP activity determination (6)(7)(8)(9)(10), for example to aid in differentiating CML from other myeloproliferative diseases (particularly myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera) or inflammatory/infectious diseases (3). The cytochemical technique for LAP determination is performed on fixed blood smears.…”

“…The determination of LAP may also be used for other purposes, such as to evaluate neutrophilic function (5), discriminate chronic neutrophilic leukemia (6), and as complementary laboratory criteria to discriminate between polycythemia vera and secondary polycythemia (7). In addition, the LAP assay has been proposed as a means of distinguishing between malignant and benign paraproteinemias (8), as a predictor of the metastatic state of breast and colorectal cancer (9), and as a prognostic test for lung cancer (10). It is possible that further applications for LAP determination will be discovered in the future.…”

Electrochemical detection of biological reactions using a novel nano-bio-chip array

“…For example, benign or malignant cells can be diagnosed by their specific enzymatic activity. Differentiation therapy of human colon cancer is associated with reappearance of alkaline phosphatase normal activity [29]. High throughput screening, sensitive detection and fast response time are especially important to improve existing identification techniques.…”