Significance of Zinc Metabolism in Blood Granulocytes in Surgical Cancer Patients

　Significance of zinc metabolism in blood granulocytes was studied in surgical cancer patients. The zinc content of blood granulocytes was analyzed using the histochemical method of McNary and the score method of Szmigielski and Litwin. The zinc score in preoperative cancer patients was markedly lower than that in non-cancer patients. This low values were not observed in most of early carcinomas while the score was almost always lowered in non-resectable carcinomas. This suggests that zinc metabolism in blood granulocytes is not disturbed until cancer progresses beyond a certain extent. The low score in preoperative cancer patients was elevated to normal values 3 to 5 weeks after the curative operation with or without cancer chemotherapy. In non-resectable carcinomas, changes in the zinc score following cancer chemotherapy seemed to run parallel with its effectiveness. These observations indicate that there is a close relation between the zinc content of blood granulocytes and the progress of cancer. This histochemical method is useful as a clinical routine method to examine the progress of cancer.