Studies in Cancer

Abstract

Saxl 1 concluded that quantitatively thiocyanate is increased in cancer with values appreciably higher than normal and higher than found in any other disease. He employed the Rupp-Schied 2 method as improved by Thiel. 3 Making use of the same method we found great variation in the apparent thiocyanate content of both normal and pathological 24-hour urines. A number of cases of marked cancer involvement showed high apparent thiocyanate as found by Saxl but other marked cases of cancer were within normal limits and sometimes below normal. It would seem that the excretion of material behaving like thiocyanate is not necessarily increased in cancer. The average in cancer is somewhat higher than for other pathological conditions tested by us since some cases as, for example, multiple myeloma, were much higher than normal. The values found in our cancer cases show that irrespective of what the Rupp-Schied-Thiel thiocyanate procedure is measuring when applied to urine, thiocyanate or other similarly reacting material is not necessarily increased in cancer.