Association between tumour status and serum lipoprotein cholesterol in hemopoietic malignancy.

Total and lipoprotein cholesterol in serum have been determined in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Untreated patients were hypocholesterolemic with reduced lipoprotein cholesterol content. On successful chemotherapy most of the patients showed near normal total cholesterol levels with a subsequent increase in LDL cholesterol content. A rapid, sensitive and inexpensive method is reported using agarose electrophoresis and quantitation of cholesterol by Liebermann-Burchard reaction.