Glutathione and its metabolizing enzymes in patients with different benign and malignant diseases

Objectives: Evaluation of glutathione (GSH) system in different tumors to reveal its potential usefulness in a clinical setting. Design and methods: In addition to 10 normal controls, blood and tissue samples (85 benign and 109 malignant) from patients with breast, ovarian, prostatic, and liver neoplasms were investigated. The GSH concentration, glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase activities were biochemically measured. Results: Whereas all the components of the GSH system increased in patients with breast tumors, few components were significantly changed in patients with malignant ovarian, prostatic as well as metastatic liver diseases. GSH had the highest Z scores in ovarian and breast tumors. It was correlated (p < 0.05) with both glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase in breast cancer and with glutathione S-transferase only in prostate cancer. No correlation could be found in the expression of the GSH system in the blood and tissues of the same group of patients. Conclusion: This work revealed that measurement of some and/or all components of the GSH system might be of clinical value in some malignant cases. Copyright (C) 2001 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists.