Acid Phosphatase Reappraised

Abstract

Acid phosphatase was the first "tumor marker" that could be measured in the blood, and 40 years have passed since an elevation of the serum acid phosphatase was first noted in patients with prostatic cancer.¹ The prostatic acinar epithelium elaborates very large quantities of a specific phosphatase as a normal component of its exocrine secretion. The enzyme is involved in the cleavage of phosphoryl choline and of various phospholipids present in the seminal fluid, but the physiologic role of these compounds is unclear.Generations of physicians have come to recognize an elevation of the serum acid phosphatase measured colorimetrically as . . .