Serum Enzymes. II. Glycolytic Enzymes in Patients with Cancer and Other Diseases2

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Abstract
Abnormal activity of several glycolytic enzymes was found in the serums of many patients with metastatic cancer. Of the enzymes measured, lactic dehydrogenase activity was most often abnormal. Most cancer patients in whom abnormal serum enzyme activities were found were also shown to excrete abnormally large amounts of creatine in the urine. Of conditions commonly associated with creatinuria, such as muscular dystrophy, dermatomyositis, pregnancy, thyrotoxicosis, malnutrition, and amputation, only muscular dystrophy and dermatomyositis were regularly accompanied by abnormal serum enzyme activity. Abnormal serum enzyme activities were frequently found in patients with recent myocardial infarction, hepatitis, nephritis, cerebral vascular accidents, and a variety of miscellaneous conditions not usually associated with creatinuria. The wide variety of conditions that were accompanied by abnormal serum activity of the various glycolytic enzymes only serve to emphasize the ubiquitousness of these enzymes in various body tissues and the lack of diagnostic specificity of abnormal serum activities of aldolase, phosphohexose isomerase, glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase, and lactic dehydrogenase.