抄録
We investigated the activities of cathepsin B, L and type IV collagenase in tissue homogenate in 26 cases with head and neck cancer and 7 cases with normal mucosa. Activities of both cathepsin and type IV collagenase in the cancer tissue were much higher than those in the normal tissue. The correlation between the size of cancer mass and activity of cathepsin was positive in cancer tissue. The type IV collagenase tendended to show high activity in the cases with cervical lymphnode metastais. There was no significant relation between cathepsin and type IV collagenase. We also investigated of the immunohistological localization and continuity of type IV collagen. Discontinuity (brekes and abscence) of type IV collagen was significantly correlated with cervical lymphnode metastasis and the cases of discontinuity had high activity of type IV collagenase. These results suggested that the activity of cathepsin might participate in local invasion, while type IV collagenase might be associated with lymphmode metastasis of cancer. Both cathepsin and type IV collagenase could be useful biochemical tumor markers to represent the groth and metastasis.
