The glycolytic enzyme activity of the human cervix uteri.

The activity of the following enzymes was studied in normal, precancerous, and malignant biopsies from the human cervix uteri: hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), pyruvate-kinase (PK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PDH). In precancerous conditions, i.e., dysplasia and carcinoma in situ without any signs of invasive carcinoma, only PK showed moderate but significant activity increases. A rise in enzyme activity in biopsies histologically classified as carcinoma in situ was found to signal the presence of invasive carcinoma in other parts of the cervix. In invasive carcinomas of the cervix, all the enzymes studied showed a two- to four-fold increase (p less than 0.01) as compared to the normal cervix. The present study failed to reveal significant differences between enzyme activities in biopsies from patients in Stage I, II, and III; no correlation could be established between enzyme activity and prognosis.