Study of erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume during cytotoxic therapy as a predictive parameter of the risk of secondary leukemia in Hodgkin's disease.

Erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume (MCV) evolution was studied during cytotoxic therapy in 12 patients with Hodgkin's disease who developed secondary acute leukemia and in 83 patients with Hodgkin's disease without secondary leukemia as control group. Significant differences were observed in the maximum MCV and in the MCV maximum increase during therapy between the two groups of patients. These differences remained significant between the patients treated with chemotherapy alone and those treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. MCV maximum increase greater than 23.9 fl was observed in all patients with secondary leukemia and in only 20% of those without secondary leukemia; it was reached 46.3 months before the first sign of preleukemia. Its value in predicting the leukemic risk in Hodgkin's disease is discussed.