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. 1977 Feb;74(2):587–591. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.2.587

Pterin-6-aldehyde, a cancer cell catabolite: identification and application in diagnosis and treatment of human cancer.

R Halpern, B C Halpern, B Stea, A Dunlap, K Conklin, B Clark, H Ashe, L Sperling, J A Halpern, D Hardy, R A Smith
PMCID: PMC392336  PMID: 265525

Abstract

Active folic acid degradation with the formation pterin-6-aldehyde is a previously undescribed characteristic of cancer cells in tissue culture. Neither normal adult epithelial and fibroblastic cells nor human amniotic cells nor mouse embryonic fibroblasts degrade folic acid to a measurable degree. Twenty-nine patients whose diagnoses were not revealed until after the test of their first morning urine for pterin-6-aldehyde was completed were studied for the presence or absence of pterin-6-aldehyde by thin-layer chromatography. Pterin-6-aldehyde was found in the urine at about 300 nmol/ml or greater only in those 13 patients with a tissue diagnosis of cancer. When the cancer was totally resected, the pterin-6-aldehyde was no longer found in the urine postoperatively. Pterin-6-aldehyde is not found in the urine of healthy patients at this level of detection unless their diets are supplemented with folic acid.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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