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Arginase, a potent immune inhibitor, existed in much greater abundance in the cytoplasm of cancer cells than in normal cells. Serum arginase levels from 31 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma were determined by using enzyme immunoassay (mean ± standard error = 18.96 f 4.83 ng/ml) and showed to be significantly higher than levels from control subjects (n = 115, 3.09 ± 0.22 ng/ml) (P < 0.005). Surgical samples of 15 patients were individually homogenized and assayed by the same method and revealed that the arginase level in tissues with colorectal cancer was two times greater than the level found in normal mucosal tissues (1.74 k 0.31 μg/g tissue versus 0.77 ± 0.09 μg/g tissue, P < 0.005). However, the serum arginase levels in patients with colorectal cancer were independent of their carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels (n = 27, arginase 11.81 70:733–736.
Leu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.