Abstract
Summary
Human infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast, fibrocystic disease of the breast, and normal human mammary tissues were assayed for their concentration of nucleic acid, lipids, and 11 selected enzymes involved in carbohydrate, lipid, and amino acid metabolism. Comparing infiltrating ductal carcinomas to normal mammary tissue, striking elevations (p <0.001) were seen in pyruvate kinase (100-fold), glucose-6-phosphate, isocitrate and malate dehydrogenases (10-15-fold), free fatty acids and cholesterol (2-3-fold). The RNA/DNA ratios in the carcinomas were unchanged but triglycerides and α-glycerolphosphate dehydrogenase were reduced. Also studied were samples from eight cases of fibrocystic disease, a common nonmalignant proliferative disease of the human breast. Ranking the levels of nucleic acids and lipids and the activities of the enzymes in the tissues studied clearly showed that normal ≦ fibrocystic disease ≦ infiltrating ductal carcinoma. No significant differences in the biochemical characteristics of the carcinomas were found relative to the size of the lesion or to the menopausal state of the patient. These data on infiltrating ductal carcinomas closely resemble the data obtained from single dose 7,12-dimethylbenz [a] anthracene-induced rat mammary carcinomas, suggesting that the latter experimental tumor may represent a valid metabolic model of human breast cancer.
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