Abstract
IT was reported by two of us that liver-zinc concentration is significantly higher in subjects dying from malignant disease than in non-malignant control series1. The increase was confined to parts of the liver which showed no macro or microscopic evidence of carcinomatous invasion. (The zinc content of the malignant deposits themselves is lower than that of normal liver.) Three explanations were considered. First, it was possible that the rise in liver zinc reflected a widespread premalignant change not peculiar to the liver. Second, it could be related to the poor nutritional state of most patients dying from malignant disease. Third, it could be a feature of the chemical defence reaction of normal liver tissue to invasion by malignant cells. These possibilities were further explored by measuring the zinc concentration in the liver, kidneys, heart muscle, spleen and pancreas of a further series of subjects. The analytical methods were as reported previously1,2. The results (Table 1) confirm the increase in liver zinc in apparently normal tissue in subjects dying from carcinoma but show no comparable increase in the zinc concentration of the kidney, heart, spleen and pancreas. The scatter of results in lung tissue was too wide to allow a firm negative conclusion.
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References
Wright, E. B., and Dormandy, T. L., Nature, 237, 166 (1972).
Wright, E. B., The Measurement and Interpretation of Liver Zinc, thesis, FIMLT (1971).
Underwood, E. J., in Trace Elements in Human and Animal Nutrition, third edition, 208 (Academic Press, New York, 1971).
Pories, W. J., Hazel, J. H., and Henessen, J. A., in Proceedings, First Annual Conference on Trace Substances, 114 (Environmental Health, 1967).
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GRIFFITH, K., WRIGHT, E. & DORMANDY, T. Tissue Zinc in Malignant Disease. Nature 241, 60 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/241060a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/241060a0
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