Elevated levels of substances immunologically cross-reactive with insulin in blood of patients with malignant and nonmalignant pulmonary tissue proliferation

Results of a survey of concentrations of substances immunologically cross-reactive with insulin (SICRI). glucose and growth hormone in preprandially drawn blood of 84 patients suffering from bronchial epidermoid, microcellular and adenocarcinomas and 22 patients from sarcoidosis, tuberculosis and obstructive bronchitis arc presented. In all these diseases, tissue proliferation takes place. Supranormal SICRI concentrations were frequently associated with these diseases, whereas concentrations of glucose and growth hormone remained unaffected; this shows that physiological effects of SICRI in these diseases differ from the effects in patients suffering from some lympho-proliferative and solid tumors. These results indicate that elevated levels of circulating substances detectable by insulin-specific radioimmunoassay can accompany both malignant and nonmalignant proliferation in lungs.