A Cancer-Associated Galactosyltransferase Isoenzyme

GALACTOSYLTRANSFERASE has been studied in human serum, and early reports failed to demonstrate an elevation of total serum galactosyltransferase in malignant disease.¹² Subsequent electrophoretic studies from this laboratory revealed that, although the majority of the serum enzyme runs as a single broad peak on polyacrylamide gels, serum specimens from patients with cancer contain a second and electrophoretically distinct isoenzyme, referred to as galactosyltransferase isoenzyme II (or GT-II).³⁴ In this report these initial findings are extended, and we present results on 387 patients with malignant and nonmalignant disorders, confirming the correlation of GT-II with cancer. Materials and Methods Patient Material Serum.