[Activities of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase in brain tumors and antitumor effect of 5'-DFUR].

Activities of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase in brain tumors were measured and their relationship to a clinical course of the patients was investigated. Pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase is said to exist more quantitatively in malignant tumors such as Sarcoma 180, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, Walker 256, and hepatoma, and very little in normal tissues. In brain tumors the activities were measured by bioassay and compared to that of Sarcoma 180. When the activity of Sarcoma 180 was expressed to be 100%, those of brain tumors were as follows: ten cases of normal brain less than 8.5; six cases of glioblastoma 39.3 +/- 30.7; five cases of astrocytoma 22.0 +/- 13.8; five cases of meningioma 22.4 +/- 13.7; two cases of oligodendroglioma 8.1 and 11.3; two cases of sarcoma 94.3 and 145.4; chordoma 48.0; ependymoblastoma 3.7; plexus papilloma 22.5; parotid cancer 43.4; ten cases of metastatic brain tumors from lung cancer 61.5 +/- 41.6; two cases from breast cancer 28.0 and 68.8; that from thyroid cancer 10.0; that from gastric cancer 13.5; malignant melanoma 77.2. In 12 cases of gliomas (glioblastoma, astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma) the mean activity was highest in glioblastoma (39.3), followed by astrocytoma (22.0) and oligodendroglioma (9.7). The postoperative survival time became shorter in gliomas with the higher activities. In metastatic brain tumors from lung, breast, and gastric cancer, the average time from the diagnosis of primary cancer to brain metastasis was shorter in cases with high activities and longer in cases with low activities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)