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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

immunassay, deoxythymidine kinase, radionucleoside phosphorylation

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

The ability to follow a cancer’s aggressiveness and response to treatment throughout the disease’s course is critical in treatment programs. The tumor markers used as indicators have not been able to consistently do this. Thymidine Kinase, an enzyme linked with cellular proliferation, has been shown to be persistently elevated in almost all cancer serums, and corresponds well with disease stage in breast cancer patients. It has also been shown that TK levels in serum, as well as in tumors, decrease drastically after treatment; subsequent rises are indicative of disease recurrence. Currently, TK levels are measured by radionucleoside phosphorylation assays. There are considerable obstacles to the feasibility of these types of measurements in a clinical setting: radioactive waste, narrow activity range, and specialized equipment. This paper presents evidence supporting the clinical use of thymidine kinase as a prognostic marker using an immunoassay from a panel of monoclonal antibodies. Using 218 serum samples from breast cancer patients; a comparative study was conducted measuring TK with both the immunoassay and 3H-radioassay. Our findings show that the immunoassay is as effective in measuring TK levels as the radioassay (P

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