Serum immunoglobulins in acute myelogenous leukemia.

Forty-five patients with acute myelogenous leukemia have been followed sequentially for 12 months. All these patients had serum immunoglobulin IgA, IgG, IgM and IgE levels measured by immunodiffusion and radioimmunoassay prior to chemotherapy, then every month after chemotherapy. Significant differences were found in IgA and IgG levels prior chemotherapy, while no differences were found in IgM or IgE levels at any time. There was a positive correlation between percentage of blasts and IgA level. There was negative correlation between the percentage of blasts and IgM levels. These findings raise the value of measuring the levels of immunoglobulins in patients with leukemia as a guide to the subclinical relapse of the disease. These results may also support the hypothesis of the role of early immune defect in immunoglobulin metabolism in the pathogenesis of acute leukemia.