title: Serum copper investigations in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
abstract: Serum copper level (SCL) was studied in 57 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. It was found that changes in serum copper are to a greater extent related to the clinical course of ALL than to the age of the children examined. The highest mean SCL were obtained in untreated patients (261.2 microgram/100ml). Normalization of myelograms during treatment is accompanied by decrease of SCL. The significant increase of SCL in comparison with SCL in remission (129.8 microgram/100ml) occurred in extramarrow localizations (163.8 microgram/100 ml) and in the group of cases where after 1/2...2 months of maintenance therapy the recurrence of ALL was noted (168.8 microgram/100 ml). These observations suggest that SCL estimation may be useful as a auxiliary test in the clinical evaluation of the disease, for efficiacy of therapy and in predicting recurrences of ALL.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003300:Copper / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous
chemical_list: D003300:Copper