CLINICAL STUDIES ON VISCERAL PROTEIN IN GASTRIC CANCER PATIENTS

Parameters of visceral and muscle protein were measured in 355 patients with gastric cancer and the relations among the levels of these parameters and the stage, location, size, depth of serosal invasion, or lymph node metastases of the tumor and survival time were studied.Cases showing low levels of muscle and visceral protein increased according to the progress of gastric cancer in terms of stage, and the majority of patients who presented protein-calorie malnutrition were Stage IV cases.The location, size, depth of serosal invasion of the tumor and cancer stage had a significant effect on the level of visceral protein. On the other hand, the grade of peritoneal and lymph node metastases had no influence on the level of visceral protein.Changes in prealbumin and retinol-binding protein showed a similar pattern to that of serum albumin, reflecting the fact that dietary factors and primary factors depend on the progress of cancer, while the level of transferrin was well correlated with the survival time in non-resectable and non-curative cases.