Activity of cancer procoagulant and cathepsin D in breast cancer

Biochemical cancer markers are used for cancer diagnosis as well as monitoring of treatment effectiveness. More and more attention is paid to cancer procoagulant enzymes (cancer procoagulant CP) and cathepsin D.
The aim of the study was to determine the activity of cancer procoagulant (CP) and cathepsin D in the blood serum and tissue in healthy women and those with breast cancer as well as to evaluate the usefulness of this examination in oncological diagnostics.
The activity of CP and cathepsin D was studied in blood serum and tissue of 8 breast cancer patients and 10 healthy women (control group). Blood serum CP activity was marked according to Gordon and Benson expressing it by coagulation time in seconds (s). The CP activity in 10% tissue homogenate was examined according to Colucci et al method expressing it by in nmol pNa/ml. The activity of cathepsin D was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteau method and expressed by the quantity of released tyrosine in nM Tyr/ml/24h and Tyr/ml/2h in the case of blood serum and tissue, respectively. The CP activity in the breast cancer blood serum was found to be 144.0±17.0 s, but in the blood serum of controls it was 279.3±31.7 s. The activity of cathepsin D was 175.6±35.9 nM Tyr/ml/24h and 76.8±17.9 nM Tyr/ml/24h in the blood serum of breast cancer and healthy controls, respectively. The CP activity in breast cancer tissue homogenates reaches the value of 50.2±13.5 nmol pNa/ml and in normal tissue homogenates it is 20.0±2.1 nmol pNa/ml. The activity of cathepsin D is 299.1±28.3 nM Tyr/ml/2 h and 61.4±9.0 nM Tyr/ml/2 h in tissue homogenates of breast cancer group and control group, respectively. Differences between the activity of CP and that of cathepsin D in the examined and control material are statistically significant (p<0.001) in all studied cases.
The results suggest that examining the activity of CP and cathepsin D may be used in oncological diagnostics of breast cancer.