Serum metallothionein in newly diagnosed patients with childhood solid tumours.

Abstract

Tumour markers are substances produced by malignant cells or by the organism as a response to cancer development. Determination of their levels can, therefore, be used to monitor the risk, presence and prognosis of a cancer disease or to monitor the therapeutic response or early detection of residual disease. Time-consuming imaging methods, examination of cerebrospinal fluid or tumour tissue and assays for hormones and tumour markers have been used for cancer diagnosis. However, no specific marker for diagnosis of childhood solid tumours has been discovered yet. In this study, metallothionein (MT) was evaluated as a prospective marker for such diseases. Serum metallothionein levels of patients with childhood solid tumours were determined using differential pulse voltammetry -Brdicka reaction. A more than 5-fold increase in the amount of metallothionein was found in sera of patients suffering from cancer disease, compared with those in sera of healthy donors. The average metallothionein level in the sera of healthy volunteers was 0.5 ± 0.2 μmol · dm -3 and was significantly different (p<0.05, determined using the Schefe test) from the average MT level found in serum samples of patients suffering from childhood solid tumours (3.4 ± 0.8 μmol · dm -3 ). Results found in this work indicate that the MT level in blood serum can be considered as a promising marker for diagnostics, prognosis and estimation of therapy efficiency of childhood tumours.

Diurnal-and sex-related difference of metallothionein expression in mice

“…The MT levels in blood can be considered as a promising biomarker for diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic efficiency evaluation of childhood tumors [28]. The potential role of MT as a prostate cancer marker has been proposed [29,30].…”

Metallothionein, Copper and Alpha-Synuclein in Alpha-Synucleinopathies

“…Serum MT levels are significantly increased in pathological conditions including various cancer types (Krizkova et al, 2010) and following traumatic brain injury (Kukacka et al, 2006) and MT can traverse the glomerular apparatus into the urine from the blood supply, with the megalin receptor for MT-1/2 present in the choroid plexus (Lewis et al, 2012). The potential of MT as a biomarker has been speculated in lysosomal storage disorders with nervous system involvement and leukodystrophy (LSDs-LD), where increased white matter MT expression correlated to severity and progression of LSDs-LD and may be related to inflammation and oxidative stress (Cesani et al, 2014).…”

Metallothioneins and zinc in cancer diagnosis and therapy

“…Most work is focused on the immunohistochemical determination of MTs in tumors Babula et al, 2011;Eckschlager et al, 2009;Gumulec et al, 2011;Krizkova et al, 2008Krizkova et al, , 2009Krizkova et al, , 2010Krizkova et al, , 2012Sochor et al, 2012), but also on its determination in serum by various methods, such as Brdicka's reaction or enzymelinked immonosorbent assay Krizkova et al, 2010). MT can serve as a prognostic marker in central nervous system tumors of childhood and adolescence (Rickert and Paulus, 2005;Rickert, 2004), osteosarcoma (Trieb and Kotz, 2001), breast cancer (Woolston et al, 2010;Jin et al, 2004;Gomulkiewicz et al, 2010), pancreatic islet cell tumors (Tomita, 2002), and tongue squamous-cell carcinoma (Theocharis et al, 2011).…”