This study was designed to define changes of leucine aminopeptidase (LAP)
and total superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)
patients after radiotherapy as a trial to correlate these parameters with disease activity
and response to treatment. The study comprised 20 patients with NPC and 20 control
subjects of those attending blood bank for blood donation. All patients underwent
detailed history taking, full ENT clinical examination, and general examination for
draining lymph nodes. Lesions' characters and TNM staging were detennined. All
study participants gave blood samples for estimation of total blood SOD and serum
LAP (pre-treatment) and were re-estimated 2 and 4 months after radiotherapy. There
was a significant (P<0.05) increase in patients' age and number of males (18:2) with
significant increased incidence in smokers (16:4) . Eleven patients had stage I. 4
patients had stage II and 5 had stage III lesions. All patients with stage II and HI
lesions and 7 with stage I were smokers. Pre-treatment levels of LAP showed a
significant (P<0.05) increase compared both to control, 2-m and 4-m levels with
progressive steady decease with treatment. The levels detected 4-m after treatment
showed a non-significant difference compared to control levels. The pretreatment
SOD levels showed a significant (P<0.05) increase compared to both control and 4-m
levels. Also, the SOD levels detected 2-m after treatment showed a significant
(P<0.05) increase compared both to control and 4-m levels. There was a positive
significant correlation between pretreatment levels of LAP, (r=0.851, P<0.001) and
SOD, (r=0.643, P=0.002) and progress of tumor growth manifested as stage. We can
conclude that pretreatment determination of total SOD and serum LAP correlate with
severity and aggressiveness of NPC and could be used as an aid for staging.
Furthermore, serum LAP correlates with response of NPC to radiotherapy and could
be used to follow-up patients and as a prognostic marker. |
