Abstract
The fetal hemoglobin (Hemoglobin F, Hb F), which is the dominant hemoglobin of late fetal life, was determined by an ion-exchange HPLC in patients with carcinoma of the breast (60), the lung (65), the liver (107) and the other non-hematopoietic organs (138). Patients with chronic hepatitis (17) and the healthy subjects (135) were studied as controls. Between day precision of the assay ranged from 12.1% (Hb F 0.4%) to 2.5% (Hb F 25.6%) as coefficient of variation.
In breast carcinoma, Hb F levels higher than 0.8% were found in 31.7% of the patients in the advanced stages and in 5.2% of the patients prior to radical surgery, respectively (P<0.005). A patient with breast carcinoma was found to have significantly elevated values of Hb F of 5.5% in total blood Hb. No systemic effects could be found of the administration of antineoplastic drugs to the elevation of Hb F. The value of Hb F was not correlated with the level of serum AFP in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the other non-hematopoietic malignancies and hepatitis. Levels of Hb F were found to have no correlation with the total concentration of hemoglobin and red blood cell count in patients with advanced cases of breast carcinoma.
