Evaluation of pteridines in patients with different tumors.

During the last few years interesting results have been reported on alterations of folates and on pterins in tissues and body fluids from patients with malignant tumors. For some diseases defects in pterin biosynthesis was described. Plasma and blood cells from various tumor patients were analyzed to obtain information on the role of pteridine pattern and the pathological alterations of cells and on the relevance of some pteridine levels for diagnosis of cancer and other diseases. In the oxidized and deproteinized blood fractions (plasma, white cells, and erythrocytes) nine pteridines (pterin-6-carboxylic acid, xanthopterin, neopterin, monapterin, isoxanthopterin, lumazine, biopterin, 6-hydroxymethylpterin, and pterin) were quantified after their separation by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection at exc/em = 360/460 nm.