Parallel changes in the blood levels of abnormally-fucosylated haptoglobin and alpha 1,3 fucosyltransferase in relationship to tumour burden: more evidence for a disturbance of fucose metabolism in cancer.

Levels of an abnormally-fucosylated form of the serum glycoprotein, haptoglobin (FHp) and an enzyme, alpha 1,3 fucosyltransferase (FT) have been measured in blood specimens from women with carcinoma of the ovary or breast who are undergoing chemotherapy. The levels of FHp and FT increased if the women had progressive disease and decreased if they showed complete response to therapy. The statistical correlation between the blood concentrations of these two substances is very strong (P less than 0.0001, chi 2 test). These results and recent studies of fucosyltransferases and cell adhesion molecules from other laboratories, suggest that there are important changes in fucose metabolism in cancer which are worthy of further investigation.