Serum deoxythymidine kinase in small cell carcinoma of the lung. Relation to clinical features, prognosis, and other biochemical markers.

Thymidine kinase (s-TK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were determined in pretreatment serum from 125 patients with small cell carcinoma of the lung. The distribution of marker levels into three ranges, when including all patients were as follows: s-TK less than 5 units 49%, 5-less than 10 units 25%, greater than or equal to 10 units 26%; LDH less than 6.7 mukat 31%, 6.7-less than 13.4 mukat 48%, greater than or equal to 13.4 mukat 21%; CEA less than 7.5 micrograms/l 51%, 7.5-less than 15 micrograms/l 25%, greater than or equal to 15 micrograms/l 24%. The percentages of patients with limited and with extensive disease within each range were s-TK less than 5 82/18, 5-less than 10 29/71, greater than or equal to 10 9/91; LDH less than 6.7 76/24, 6.7-less than 13.4 51/49, greater than or equal to 13.4 21/79; CEA less than 7.5 70/30, 7.5-less than 15 39/61, greater than or equal to 15 23/77. Analyses in relation to metastases present showed that patients with skeletal and bone marrow metastases had significantly higher s-TK and LDH than those without, while this was not the case for CEA. A strong correlation between s-TK and LDH level, a weaker correlation between CEA and s-TK, and no correlation between CEA and LDH level, was found. Both the level of s-TK and LDH correlated to the patients' performance, as defined by the Karnofsky index. These correlations were mainly confined to the patients with extensive disease. Analyses of the prognostic capacity of variables showed that s-TK, stage, and Karnofsky index could divide the patients into groups with highly significant difference in survival time, while LDH and CEA were of less value. Longitudinal studies showed that the serum markers mirrored the disease activity, with the exception that highly increased s-TK was found during remission induction for some patients. It was concluded that the expression of pathologic levels for the serum markers were dependent on different biological parameters. Of the serum markers, only s-TK was judged useful for estimation of disease spread and prognosis of the individual patient.