Prognostic significance of serum lysozyme in adult acute myelogenous leukaemia.

Pre-treatment sera from 88 adult patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia have been assayed for their lysozyme content. All 19 patients who presented with a serum-lysozyme level below 15 mug/ml failed to acheive haematological remission from intensive chemotherapy. Serum-lysozyme levels above 85 mug/ml were found in 10 patients, all of whom went into remission. Remissions in this group were, however, shortlived. Of the 59 patients with lysozyme levels between 15 and 85 mug/ml, 39 achieved haematological remission and 12 survived longer than 60 weeks. These findings suggest that estimation of serum-lysozyme may help to identify those patients who are unlikely to respond to the intensive-chemotherapy protocols currently advocated and who could therefore be spared exposure to them.