A Study of Anaerobic Bacteria from the Patients with Nasopharyngeal Cancer or Lung Cancer in Hohg Kong

众所周知，香港的鼻咽癌和女性肺癌的发病率，尽管香港的女性吸烟者比例低于日本，或者EB病毒的感染率很高，但香港和日本的比例几乎相同。我们观察了5例鼻咽癌患者及其对照鼻咽部细菌的蛋白激酶C活性。在37℃好氧和厌氧条件下培养48h。患者在需氧和厌氧条件下培养的细菌平均蛋白激酶C活性分别为20.0和13.2mU/mug。对照组在好氧和厌氧条件下培养的细菌的平均活性分别为5.18和10.4mU/mug。我们还采集了三名以慢性咳嗽和痰为主诉的香港妇女的痰，并在37℃的好氧和厌氧条件下培养了48小时。在好氧条件下培养的细菌不具有冈田酸等启动子所显示的蛋白激酶活性。然而，这两名女性在厌氧条件下培养的细菌显示出很强的蛋白激酶活性。这些发现表明，能够在厌氧条件下生长的细菌可能在癌症的病因学中起到了促进剂的作用。经鉴定，该细菌为血链球菌。

It is well known that the incidence rates of nasopharyngeal cancer and female lung cancer in Hong Kong, although proportion of female smokers in Hong Kong is less than that in Japan or infection rate of EB virus is high and almost the same in Hong Kong and Japan. There may be other modifing factors like promoters specific to those cancer in Hong Kong.We observed protein kinase C activity of bacteria from nasopharynx of the 5 patients with nasopharyngeal cancer and their controls. The bacteria were cultivated in 37^0C for 48 hours in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The mean protein kinase C activity for bacteria cultivated in aerobic and anaerobic conditions from the patients was 20.0 and 13.2mU/mug. The mean activity for bacteria cultivated in aerobic and anaerobic condition from the controols was 5.18 and 10.4mU/mug.We also obtained sputum from three Hong Kong women who complain chronic cough and sputum, and cultivated the materials in 37^0C for 48 hours in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The bacteria cultivated in aerobic condition had no protein kinase activity, which the promoter like Okadaic acid shows. However, the bacteria cultivated in anaerobic condition from the two women showed strong protein kinase activity. These findings suggest that bacteria which can grow in anaerobic condition may have some role in the etiology of cancer as a promoter. The bacteria was identified as Streptococcus sanguis.