Abstract
It is well known that the plasminogen activator (PA) occurs in various malignant tumor cells. Furthermore, it is known that the PA relates to the proliferation and the growth of tumor cell. On the other hand, the development of the metastasis is closely related to the formation of thrombus. Based on the above-mentioned results, we expected that the coagulation and fibrinolytic activity in blood of patients with cancer of head and neck affect considerably the progress of cancer state.
In order to clear the relationship between the coagulo-fibrinolysis system in blood and the progress of the cancer, we examined the fibrinolytic activity, antiplasmin and antithrombin in blood from 9 cases with cancer of head and neck. The fibrinogen content, FDP, lysis area of euglobulin, antiplasmin activity, and antithrombin activity were determined. The results obtained were summarized as follows.
1) Fibrinogen content and fibrinolytic activity of euglobulin in cancer were significantly higher than that in healthy adults (p<0.001). On the other hand, FDP level in cancer was slightly higher than those in healthy adults, but the difference in two groups could not be regarded as significance.
2) Both antiplasmin and antithrombin activity in plasma of patients with cancer were significantly lower than thosein healthy adults (p<0.05, p<0.001). Based on these results, it was appeared that hypercoagulable states occurred in the blood with cancer and then hyperfibrinolytic activity followed. Furthermore, it was suggested that the concomitant administration of the anticoagulant and antifibrinolytic drug was available to control the progress of the cancer.
