Serum and red cell folates in patients with leukaemia and lymphomas.

ABSTRACT

It has been suggested that leukaemia and lymphomas may cause folic acid depletion. The supporting evidence were obtained from urinary excretion of folic acid, rate of clearance of injected folic acid from the plasma and serum folic acid assays. However, no data red cell folate levels has been reported, the present study was there fore undertaken. Serum and red cell folate levels were determined in 144 patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia, acute myeloblastic leukaemia, chronic myelocytic leukaemia, Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The mean serum and red cell folate values in these patients were significantly lower than those of normal subjects. About 21.5% and 28.5% of these patients had serum folate levels lower than 3 ng/ml and red cell folate levels lower than 100 ng/ml, respectively. The elevated MCV and MCH values were also found in 42% and 30% of the patient’s groups. These findings indicated that some patients with leukaemia and lymphomas had macrocytiosis which was highly due to folic acid deficiency. The deficiency may be caused by various factors such as increased requirement due to an elevated production of leukaemic cells with higher folic acid content than normal leucocytes, poor dietary folic acid intake due to loss of appetite and intestinal malabsorption of lolic acid.