Abstract
The levels of nucleic acid bases in resected gastric tissues, were measured by HPLC and analyzed clinicopathologically. In 14 cases with gastric carcinoma, the sum of the base levels was high in tumor tissues and the mean level of each base in the tumor was as follows: cytosine (0.36mcg/g), thymine (0.72mcg/g), uracil (65.09mcg/g), adenine (11.29mcg/g) and guanine (8.32mcg/g). The levels of uracil was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal mucosa. Positive correlation was observed between the level of tumor and of normal mucosa (a coefficient of correlation of 0.66). Histologically, uracil showed a high concentration in cases with lymphatic invasion or lymph node metastasis. Negative correlation was observed between the survival time of 7 patients who died of progressive carcinoma of the stomach and their uracil level in tumor (a coefficient of correlation of -0.61). These results indicate that determination of uracil level in gastric carcinoma might provide useful information for the prognosis of cancer patients.
