Adenosine deaminase and 5 '-nucleotidase activities in saliva from patients with oral and laryngeal cancer

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate saliva's activities of adenosine deaminase (ADA) and 5'-nucleotidase (5'-NT) enzymes and their utility as diagnostic and therapeutic markers in oral and laryngeal cancer. Materials and Methods: Pre- and post-operative saliva's activities of ADA and 5'-NT enzymes were measured in patients with squamous cell oral (n=10) and laryngeal cancer (n=17) and compared with control saliva samples (n=19). Results: The ADA was found to be lower in saliva of the patients with oral cancer compared with the laryngeal cancer and controls. However, no significant differences were found between pre- and post-operative values for both enzymes in the patient groups. We also could not find statistically significant differences between saliva's activities of 5'-NT in patients and control subjects. Conclusions: Low activity of ADA observed in saliva of the patients with oral cancer has been suggested as a compensatory mechanism against rapid purine and DNA metabolism in cancer cells. The current study does not support the hypothesis that saliva's activities of these enzymes may be used as additional diagnostic and prognostic cancer markers.