Clinical significance of serum thymidine kinase in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

The content of serum thymidine kinase in 229 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), depending on the clinical course of the disease was studied. It was found that patients with CLL thymidine kinase has such a concentration which correlates with disease stage, indolent or progressive variants of the tumor process, a period of remission and relapse. Determination of thymidine kinase concentrations in patients’ serum at diagnosis provides an additional information for the prediction of survival, free from treatment, treatment response and overall survival of patients with CLL.