Serum levels of folate, homocysteine, and vitamin B₁₂ in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and in laryngeal leukoplakia

Abstract

BACKGROUND The authors evaluated serum levels of folate, homocysteine, and vitamin B12 in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and in patients with laryngeal leukoplakia, a well known preneoplastic lesion. METHODS One hundred forty‐four consecutive, untreated patients with HNSCC and 40 consecutive, untreated patients with laryngeal leukoplakia were enrolled in the Department of Otolaryngology at the authors' institution. Data from those patients were compared with data from one control group, which included 90 smokers, and from another control group, which included 120 nonsmokers. Serum levels of homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B12 were measured by an automated immunoassay method based on fluorescence polarization immunoassay technology. RESULTS Comparing groups by Student–Newman–Keuls test, serum folate levels were significantly lower in patients with HNSCC and in patients with laryngeal leukoplakia compared with serum folate levels in both the smoker control group and the nonsmoker control group. Serum homocysteine levels in patients with HNSCC were significantly higher compared with homocysteine levels both in the smoker and nonsmoker control groups and in patients with laryngeal leukoplakia. There were no statistically significant differences between groups in serum vitamin B12 levels. CONCLUSIONS A role for folate deficiency as a risk factor in head and neck carcinogenesis is plausible. A chemoprevention protocol with folate is both feasible and ethically correct and is in progress at the authors' institution. Homocysteine levels in patients with HNSCC probably are affected largely by the HNSCC phenotype. An accumulation of homocysteine may reveal a genetic defect, which, theoretically, may be a target for pharmacologic therapy, for example, with antifolic drugs. Cancer 2005. © 2004 American Cancer Society.

Polymorphisms of MTHFD, Plasma Homocysteine Levels, and Risk of Gastric Cancer in a High-Risk Chinese Population

“…Several studies reported that hyperhomocysteinemia were associated with increased risk of cervical (41), lung (42), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (43), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (44), but not with colorectal cancer (45). In the present study, we also showed that high plasma tHcy was associated with significantly increased risk of gastric cancer in this high-risk Chinese population.…”

Hematinic Deficiency and the risk of Oral Epithelial Dysplasia

“…In this study a decrease in the plasma folate levels was observed in the patients consuming tobacco as compared to the nonsmokers, thus confirming the observation of Almadori et al from Italy [36] folate levels were significantly lower in patients with head and neck carcinoma and in patients with laryngeal leukoplakia compared with serum folate levels in both the smoker and nonsmoker control group. Likewise, Ramaswamy et al (25] have reported low levels of vitamin B 12 and folate in a group of Indian patients with oral leukoplakia, furthermore, several other investigators have suggested that deficiency of folate enhances development of preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions, which are suppressed by folate supplementation [37].…”

Amino Acid Profile in Oral Submucous Fibrosis: A High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Study

“…Metabolic alterations often not specific, are frequently associated with carcinoma. Laviano A [13], Cascino A, Muscaritoli M, et al, [14] stated that tumour growth is associated with a number of metabolic abnormalities. They have suggested that Tryptophan can be used as a marker of neoplastic disease.…”