Relationship Between Total and Lipid-bound Serum Sialic Acid and Some Tumor Markers

Background: increased levels of total and lipid-associatedsial ic acid (tsa and lasa) have been reported in the sera ofpatients with benign or malignant tumors and also could beregarded as newly important clinical criteria for the diagnosisof cancer. this study has investigated the differences of tsaand lasa contents between cancer patients and healthy individualsand evaluated their correlations between tsa andlasa with some tumor markers in different types of cancer.methods: 35 patients with histopathologically confirmedcancers and 32 healthy individuals participated in the study.tumor markers in serum including cea, ca 15-3, ca 19-9and ca-125 were measured using elisa. tsa and lasawere quantified using spectrophotometric methods of erlichand katopodis respectively and non-parametric tests wereused for statistical analysis.results: the median (range) obtained for tsa in healthy andcancer patients were 83.6 (59.0-106.2) and i 19.5 (84.7-205.8)mg/dl respectively and the difference was statistically significant(p(less than)o.oo i). the corresponding values for lasa contentof serum in healthy and cancer patients were 16.9 (13.3-20.7),and 31.0 (15.0-50.3) mg/dl. statistical analysis showed significantdifferences in lasa content between these twogroups (p(less than)o.ooi). a positive correlation coefficient wasobtained between tsa, lasa and different tumor markers.conclusion: the significant correlation between tsa, lasaand different tumor markers in cancer patients indicated thatthey could be used as diagnostic criteria. however, clue to theirlack of specificity, they may support the presence of tumormarkers in different malignancies and be helpful in relation totherapy and monitoring of patients.