Evaluation of zinc and cadmium levels in the biological samples of Ewing sarcomas patients and healthy subjects.
BACKGROUND
Ewing's sarcoma is a very rare type of cancerous tumor that grows in bones or the soft tissue around the bones, such as cartilage or the nerves. It frequently affects the people at the age of 10 to 20 years and has elevated rate of being cured.


METHODS
Assessment of essential trace [zinc (Zn)] and toxic [cadmium (Cd)] elements in biological samples (scalp hair and blood) of Ewing sarcoma patients (n = 87 age ranging 07-19 years) residents of various cities of Pakistan was done. For comparative study, the biological samples of age matched healthy (referent) subjects (n = 62) were also analyzed for selected metals. The matrices of biological samples was oxidized with the help of HNO3 (65%) and H2O2 (30%) mixture at the ratio of 2:1 with the aid of microwave oven. The oxidized biological samples were subjected to atomic absorption spectrometry for their determination.


RESULT
The Zn contents in the scalp hair and blood samples of different types of Ewing sarcoma patients were found to be lower, in the range of (45.9-141.2 µg/g) and (0.65-3.12 mg/l), respectively than the biological samples of referent subjects (246-265 µg/g) and (6.40-7.25 mg/l), respectively. Whilst, the Cd concentrations in the scalp hair and blood samples of different types of Ewing sarcoma patients were found to be higher, in the range of (2.70-5.60 µg/g) and (2.46-5.64 µg/l), respectively than the biological samples of controls (1.49-1.79 µg/g) and (1.52-1.90 µg/l), respectively. The biochemical parameters including hemoglobin% and RBC counts were significantly lower in patients than referents (p < 0.001), whereas WBC counts was alarmingly higher in patients than referents (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSION
The resulted data will be helpful to treat patients of Ewing sarcoma with mineral supplement contains essential trace element (Zn) in recommended dose to further increase their survival rate.
['Chanihoon|Ghulam Qadir|GQ|', 'Afridi|Hassan Imran|HI|', 'Kazi|Tasneem Gul|TG|', 'Talpur|Farah Naz|FN|', 'Baig|Jameel Ahmed|JA|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D002104:Cadmium D002648:Child D064368:Healthy Volunteers D006801:Humans D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide D012509:Sarcoma D012535:Scalp D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic D014131:Trace Elements D055815:Young Adult D015032:Zinc
Zinc Cadmium Ewing sarcoma Scalp hair Blood samples