Endogenous diazepam concentrations in the serum of patients with liver neoplasms.

The study included 61 patients (35 men and 26 women) ages 47 to 74 in whom a primary liver cancer was diagnosed or neoplastic metastases to the liver were confirmed in the course of a cancer of the stomach or the large bowel. In each patient the endogenous serum diazepam concentration (ESDC) was estimated chromatographically and the results obtained were compared to selected clinical traits such as the magnitude and number of neoplastic changes and their location in the liver parenchyma, the histological form of the tumor and the primary location of the cancer in the case of neoplasms of the alimentary canal. The determination of the ESDC was also carried out in a control group made up of voluntary blood donors. Neither group examined received any medication belonging to the benzodiazepine group. From the results of the tests conducted it was confirmed that the average ESDC of patients with liver neoplasms was 65 times higher than that of the control group. Simultaneously, however, in patients with a primary liver cancer the average endogenous concentration was higher than in patients with neoplastic metastases to that organ and this was statistically significant. The location in the hepatic parenchyma of the neoplastic change as well as the primary location of the cancer remained without a statistically significant influence in the changes of ESDC. It was moreover shown that significantly high ESDC were associated in the liver mainly with increased neoplastic growth (above 3 cm in diameter) and with multiple spread (5 focuses and more).