Nitric Oxide – Concomitant Of Metastases

The cerebral metastases occur approximately with 25 to 30 percent of oncological patients. At that, they appear independent of the primary tumor location. Metastatic disease is accompanied by the basic tumor growth, and in this case the patient is ususally doomed. Half of the patients with cerebral metastases die of them, in spite of conducted treatment. Therefore, metastases in the cerebrum should be discovered as early as possible and their development should be suppressed. Nitric oxide is convenient to be used as a diagnostic marker.

Nitric oxide and its derivatives play a significant role in cancer occurrence and development. Nitric oxide influences the vessel growth in the tumor, the grow of tumors per se, metastatic disease and the apoptosis process (programmed cell death). Its level depends on treatment efficiency.

Experiments involved 24 patients of the neuro-oncology division of the Rostov Oncology Research Institute. Among them, there were patients with malignant growths of the mammary gland, lung, kidney, thyroid gland and with melanoma. The reference group was made of 15 persons without oncological diseases. The contents of nitric oxide derivatives – peroxinitrite, nitrosohaemoglobin, nitrosoglutathione, nitrotyrosine – in blood plasma was determined for all the patients. The analysis was performed via the spectrophotometric method.

It has turned out that the patients with multiple metastases in the brain had much higher contents of nitric oxide derivatives in blood plasma than the patients with solitary metastases and healthy people did. As for the patients with solitary metastases, they were classified into two sub-groups. Five patients had the peroxinitrite and nitrosohaemoglobin level much higher than the average values in this group, respective indices of other patients not differing from the reference level. Over time, metastases in the brain started to develop rapidly with two persons from the subgroup with high contents of nitric oxide derivatives, with one patient – metastases appeared in lymph nodes, and the primary tumor increase in size with two other patients.

As the nitoderivative leve increases before clinicians can record the primary tumor or cerebral metastases growth, the Rostov oncologists suggest that this index should be used for the disease prognosis.