Serum copper investigations in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

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.