Nonprostatic

The term serum has been omitted designedly from the title of this section, for we shall be discussing not only alterations of acid phosphatase activity in the serum of patients with nonprostatic disease, but also in the leukocytes of patients with hematologic and hematopoietic disorders and, in some conditions, in certain specialized tissues. 

Of considerable interest were the much higher incidences of elevated acid phosphatase activities in patients with nonprostatic, metastatic neoplastic disease. For example, in 70 female patients with metastatic carcinoma of the breast, the range of activities was 7.3 to 101 units, with 74% of the patients showing elevated activities. In 48 males with nonprostatic metastatic carcinoma and in 42 females with nonmammary metastatic carcinoma, the incidence of elevated acid phosphatase activities were 46% and 31%, respectively. 

The report of these high incidences of elevations of acid phosphatase activity in miscellaneous disease and in nonprostatic neoplastic disease, determined by a method presumably more specific than the usual Gutman method (GIO, G14), is not in accord with earlier studies, such as those of Sullivan et al. (S30) shown in Table 10. The incidences of elevations were considerably lower than those reported by Reynolds et al. 

Alanen KA, Kuopio T, Koskinen PJ, Nevalainen TJ. Immunohistochemical labelling fot prostate specific antigen in nonprostatic tissues. Pathol Res Pract. 1996 192 233-237. 

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