Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) are considered to be key enzymes affecting the prognosis for patients with gastric and colorectal cancers. We tried to prove the correlation of TP and DPD expressions in gastric and colorectal cancers. The present study was designed to quantify TP and DPD levels by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in tumors and normal tissues obtained from 16 gastric and 20 colorectal cancer patients. TP and TP/DPD ratio in the tumor specimens were almost all higher than those in each normal tissue, especially for tumors in the progressive state. In the early stage of the colorectal cancer group, DPD in the normal tissues were higher than those in the tumor specimens. There were no significant differences between TP levels in the tumor specimens of the two groups, whereas in stages III and IV, those of the gastric cancer group tended to be higher than those of colorectal cancer group. In stages I and II, DPD levels in the tumor specimens tended to be higher in the gastric cancer group than in the colorectal cancer group. DPD T/N was higher in the gastric cancer group than in the colorectal cancer group. There were no significant differences between TP/DPD ratios in the tumor specimens of the two groups, whereas those in normal tissue were higher in the gastric cancer group than in the colorectal cancer group. We may be able to achieve the successful effects or reduction of side effects of anticancer chemotherapy for gastric and colorectal cancer using the results of this study.

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