Determination of urine neuron-specific enolase levels in neuroblastoma patients.

Abstract

Urine levels of neuron-specific enolase were determined in 3 neuroblastoma patients (1 in an advanced state and 2 in remission), 25 control children, 37 control adults and 4 children with hematuria by means of the double-antibody inhibition radioimmunoassay specific to the y subunit of enolase isozymes. The levels of neuron-specific enolase mean +S.D. ng/ creatinine mg in an advanced neuroblastoma patient were elevated (1.25±0.29 before or after treatment and range 1.61-74.2 during treatment) when compared with those of control subjects (0.51+0.26 in children and 0.36+0.17 in adults). The levels in 2 neuroblastoma patients in remission were within normal range. Urine samples with hematuria were not used for the assay.neuroblastoma ; urine ; neuron-specific enolase Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), primarily found in tissue of the central nervous system, has been shown to be contained in the neuroendocrine cells and neuroendocrine tumors (Tapia et al. 1981). It has been reported that serum NSE level was closely related to the clinical response to the therapies of these patients (Ishiguro et al. 1983). In this report, we describe the results of urine NSE (ng/creatinine (Cr) mg) assays in healthy children, healthy adults and two neuroblastoma patients in remission, and those of serial measurements of urine NSE (ng/Cr mg) levels in an advanced neuroblastoma patient by the double-antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA) method.Control samples consisted of urines from 25 children and 37 adults. The patient 1, 2 and 3 were a 2 year-7 month old male with neuroblastoma, a 1 month old female with neuroblastoma and a 1 year-4 month old male with ganglio-neuroblastoma, respectively. Initial levels of serum NSE (ng/ml) in patient 1, 2 and 3 were 128.0, 51.0 and 35.5, respectively. In patient 1, serum NSE levels fell temporarily to nearly normal levels as the patients responded to chemotherapy and radiation but the serum NSE levels increased again as his condition deteriorated. Then collections of urine for measurements of NSE started. In patient 2 and 3, high serum NSE levels returned to normal levels after intensive treatments. During the remission period, urine samplings were done.The samples were collected as soon as possible after the passage of urine, added with 50% glycerol in the final 10% glycerol concentration, and then stored at -4°C until assayed. All of the samples were processed within 1 week. The urine samples were analyzed for the levels of NSE and Cr by a RIA method (NSE kit, Eiken Immunochemical Laboratory,

Urine neuron-specific enolase and its clinical implication in patients with neuroblastoma.

“…These results raise the possibility of serum NSF measurement as an additional and simple diagnostic method (Ishiguro et al 1982(Ishiguro et al , 1983. We also reported that urine levels of NSE were higher in an infant with advanced neuroblastoma than those in controls (Gotoh et al 1985). In this paper, we examined the correlation between urine NSF levels and clinical features in 3 patients with neuroblastoma in details.…”