Pak. J. Pharm. Sci., 2006, Vol.19(3), 219-230 219 ORIGINAL ARTICLE EVALUATION OF SOME BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS AS PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN MALIGNANT LYMPHOMAS HALA A SALEM, LAILA A EISSA, AHMED M RABBIE, EL-HELW LM* AND AMAL M EL-GAYAR Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and *Department of Internal Medicine, Hemato-Oncology Unit, Mansoura University, Egypt, 35516 ABSTRACT This study aimed to estimate the pre- and post-treatment serum levels of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), soluble p55 tumor necrosis factor receptor (sp55TNF-R) and soluble L-selectin in order to evaluate their prognostic significance and their role in monitoring tumor growth and host-tumor response in malignant lymphomas. Also, the work aimed to investigate the relationship between these levels with B symptoms and disease stage. For this purpose, 43 newly diagnosed patients with malignant lymphoma (12 with Hodgkin’s disease (HD) and 31 with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) were selected from Mansoura University Hospital. Among NHL patients, 7 were in stage I/II, 13 in stage III and 14 in stage IV. In addition, 10 NHL patients were presented with B symptoms while, 21 did not. 7 apparently healthy individuals were selected as a control reference group. Results: 1-Pre-treatment levels of GAGs, sp55TNF-R and sL-selectin increased significantly in both HD and NHL before treatment as compared to control. Pre-treatment sp55TNF-R levels in both diseases and sL-selectin (only in HD patients) may have a significant value in predicting response to therapy, while GAGs level in both diseases and sL-selectin in NHL patients had a limited value in such prediction. 2- In contrast to sp55TNF-R and sL-selectin, post-treatment GAG levels are thought to be a good sign of remission in both HD and NHL. 3- Serum GAG levels increased significantly before treatment in stages III/IV NHL as compared to stage I/II, so serum GAGs at diagnosis could reflect tumor bulk and the disease activity. 4- Elevated serum sp55TNF-R before treatment was associated with the presence of B symptoms and such association lead to a worse prognosis. Conclusion: Pre-treatment sp55TNF-R levels in both HD & NHL and sL- selectin (only in HD patients) could be used as prognostic factor with respect to predicting treatment outcome. Serum GAGs at diagnosis could reflect tumor bulk and the disease activity. Keywords: Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, glycosaminoglycans, tumor necrosis factor, L-selectin. INTRODUCTION The malignant lymphomas are neoplastic transformations of cells that reside predominantly with lymphoid tissues (Freedman and Nadler, 1993). They are a heterogeneous group of malignancies of B or T cells that usually originate in the lymph nodes but may originate in any organ of the body (Foon and Fisher, 1995). The term “lymphoma” emphasize the fact the hallmark of these disorders is abnormal lymph node enlargement, with disruption or replacement of the normal histologic architecture (Manner, 1998). Lymphomas have traditionally been divided into two classes: Hodgkin’s disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). Hematologic malignancies, such as malignant lymphoma, respond well to cancer chemotherapy. Therefore, it is important to monitor the state of response to chemotherapy as well as to determine the complete disappearance of the tumor and to predict early detection of recurrence in routine clinical work by estimation of tumor marker levels. In the past decade numerous prognostic factors have been reported to influence response to therapy and survival of patients with malignant lymphomas. Various serum biochemical markers, such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), β2- microglobulin, and albumin serum levels have most frequently been identified as prognostic factors in malignant lymphomas (Harrington et al., 1993; Shipp, 1994 and Aisenberg, 1995). Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are unbranched poly- saccharides which, with the exception of hyaluronan, are covalently bound to a core protein forming proteoglycan (Murray and Keeley, 2000). It has been shown that human lymphocytes and monocytes produce various proteoglycan types (Kolset et al., 1984). Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is one of the cytokines which through its p55 and p75 receptors, has been identified to participate in the development and in the function of normal lymphoid tissues and to stimulate the proliferation of T and B lymphocytes (Aggarwal and Vilcek, 1992). L-selectin is a member of the selectin family of adhesion molecule (Bevilacqua and Nelson, 1993), which is essential for the migration of lymphocytes into peripheral lymph Corresponding author: lailaeissa2002@yahoo.com