The activities and some properties of acid and alkaline phosphatases, inorganic pyrophosphatase, 5'-nucleotidase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase and aminotransferases in homogenates of normal and cancer lung tissue were investigated. The study group consisted of 26 patients treated in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław. All patients were men, aged 49 to 69 years (mean, 58 years), with a histologically proven diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, stage I - 17 patients (65.4%), stage II - 3 patients (11.6%), stage IIIa - 5 patients (19.2%) and stage IIIb - one patient (3.8%). All patients underwent pulmonary resection including pneumonectomy in 12 cases (46.2%), lobectomy in 11 cases (42.3%) and limited surgery (i.e. wedge resection) in 3 cases (11.55%). Samples for determining enzymatic activity were obtained from postoperative specimens. Preliminary results indicate that activities of inorganic pyrophosphatase in lung cancer tissue are markedly elevated. The index of proteolytic modification of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase is also increased.

Keywords: tumour marker, squamous cell lung cancer, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, Inorganic Pyrophosphatase