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Activity of serum thymidine kinase in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Relationship to other prognostic factors

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Summary

The value of serum deoxythymidine kinase (TK) for the staging and evaluation of disease activity of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) as compared with serum β2-microglobulin, serum lactate dehydrogenase, blood sedimentation rate, blood hemoglobin, white blood cell count, lymphocyte count and platelet count was investigated in 101 patients. In addition, the performance status was determined by the Karnofsky index. Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL;n=43) and immunocytoma (IC;n=19) were staged according to the Binet classification, and the other low (n=28) and high grade NHL (n=8) according to the Ann Arbor classification.

The analysis of all CLL and IC patients revealed that TK values correlated better with Binet stages (p=0.01;n=58) than blood sedimentation rate (p=0.05,n=12), lactate dehydrogenase (p=0.08;n=50), β2-microglobulin (p=0.29;n=28), lymphocyte count (p=0.70;n=57), white blood cell count (p=0.69,n=59) and the Karnofsky index (p=0.16,n=50). Mean TK levels of these patients were for Binet stage A 6.2±0.8 U/l (mean±S.E.M., range 2.3–18.0), stage B 13.3±6.5 U/l (3.8–38.8) and stage C 19.6±4.4 U/l (1.9–79.0), and for 22 healthy controls 3.8±0.2 U/l (2.2–6.0). Patients with multiple courses of chemotherapy (n=32) previous to the study had significantly (p=0.01) higher TK levels (16.4±3.7 U/l; 2.3–79.0) than those with only up to one course (n=66; TK: 8.6±1.4 U/l; 1.5–66.3). The follow-up of 16 patients with low grade NHL showed that serum TK levels paralleled well the clinical response. The results indicate that TK might be a worthful parameter to estimate progression and response to therapy of NHL.

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Abbreviations

TK:

deoxythymidine kinase

NHL:

non-Hodgkin lymphoma

lNHL:

low grade malignant non-Hodgkin lymphoma

hNHL:

high grade malignant non-Hodgkin lymphoma

CLL:

chronic lymphocytic leukemia

IC:

immunocytoma

ATP:

adenosine triphosphate

dThd:

deoxythymidine

dTMP:

deoxythymidine monophosphate

dTTP:

deoxythymidine triphosphate

IUdR:

125I-iodo-deoxyuridine

β2m:

β2-microglobulin

LDH:

lactate dehydrogenase

BSR:

blood sedimentation rate

Hb:

hemoglobin

WBC:

white blood cell count

KI:

Karnofsky index

ANOVA:

Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance

Wilcoxon:

Wilcoxon rank sum test for pairwise comparison

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. I. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Abteilung für Hämatologie und Onkologie, Technische Universität München, Germany

    M. Hallek, B. Emmerich, S. Strohmeyer & A. Reichle

  2. Institut für Biomathematik und Medizinische Statistik, Technische Universität München, Germany

    R. Busch

  3. Institut für Nuklearmedizin, Technische Universität München, Germany

    R. Senekowitsch

Authors
  1. M. Hallek
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  2. B. Emmerich
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  3. S. Strohmeyer
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  4. R. Busch
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  5. A. Reichle
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  6. R. Senekowitsch
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Additional information

Dedicated to Professor J. Rastetter on his 60th birthday

Parts of the results have been presented at the „Gemeinsame Jahrestagung der Deutschen und Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Hämatologie“, Würzburg, Germany, october 1987, and at the „6. Internationale Arbeitstagung des Ludwig Boltzmann-Institutes für Leukämieforschung und Hämatologie über Leukämien und Lymphome“, Wien, Austria, february 1988.

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Hallek, M., Emmerich, B., Strohmeyer, S. et al. Activity of serum thymidine kinase in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Relationship to other prognostic factors. Klin Wochenschr 66, 718–723 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01726414

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01726414

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