Peripheral blood leucocytes ornithine decarboxylase activity in chronic myeloid leukemia patients: prognostic and therapeutic implications.

Leukocytes ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity was measured in normal individuals and in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase (CML-CP) as well as in accelerated phase (CML-AP), with an aim to examine the role of ODC activity in prognostic evaluation of CML patients. Our results showed that ODC activity was significantly higher in CML-CP (41.02+/-25.57nmol/h per 10(7) cells, P<0.005) and CML-AP (67.71+/-44.42nmol/h per 10(7) cells, P<0.001) patients than in normal subjects (3.12+/-1.34nmol/h per 10(7) cells). Furthermore, patients with CML-AP showed higher ODC activity than CML-CP patients (P<0.005). Patients with CML-CP who converted to accelerated phase within 24 months had higher ODC activity (84.58+/-12.81nmol/h per 10(7) cells) than patients who did not convert to accelerated phase (31.13+/-18.24nmol/h per 10(7) cells). The high value of ODC activity was also associated with less clinico-hematological response. We suggest that ODC activity reflects the neoplastic proliferative activity in CML patients and may serve as an additional prognostic marker.