Significance of serum copper levels in adult patients with Hodgkin's disease

A study of 896 serum copper levels (SCL) in 191 adult patients with Hodgkin's disease has demonstrated a clinically useful relationship between SCL and the disease activity. Elevated SCL in the active disease decreases as disease activity is reduced in response to therapy, with normal SCL during remission and elevated SCL in relapse; the latter often precedes clinical signs. These relations of SCL do not seem to be present in the limited number of lymphocytic predominance cases observed. A relation between SCL and extent of disease is shown by marked elevation in SCL in generalized in contrast to localized disease and is more pronounced in patients with systemic symptoms. A control group of 33 patients with prostatic carcinoma treated with radiotherapy showed no relationship of SCL to disease or therapy. The findings in this study of serum copper confirm its clinical significance in the evaluation of Hodgkin's disease activity.