Clinical application of serum levels of sialic acid, fucose and seromucoid fraction as tumour markers in human leukemias.

To establish a blood-based biochemical profile for diagnosis and management of human leukemias, serum total sialic acid/total protein, lipid bound sialic acid, fucose/total protein and seromucoid fraction (quantitated as its hexoses and protein contents) levels were measured by highly specific spectrophotometric methods. Compared to the controls (n = 150), all the biomarkers were significantly elevated in anemia patients (pathological controls, n = 77) and untreated leukemia patients (n = 145). Furthermore, significantly raised levels of the markers were observed in untreated leukemia patients compared to anemia patients. Fucose/total protein was the most specific (71.0%) marker, while hexose levels were the most sensitive (93.0%) marker for leukemia. The levels of the biomarkers in patients with persistent leukemic activity/accelerated leukemic phase were significantly higher than those in patients in remission and were comparable with pretreatment levels. The study suggested that the markers evaluated are useful in diagnosis and treatment monitoring of leukemia patients.