Serum thymidine kinase as a prognostic indicator for patients with multiple myeloma: results from the MRC (UK) V Trial

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary. The significance of serum thymidine kinase (STK) as a prognostic indicator for patients with myeloma has been evaluated by determining the pre‐treatment level of STK in a retrospective study of 547 patients from the Medical Research Council (MRC) V Myeloma Trial. Overall, STK was a highly significant prognostic factor (Chi2= 7.91; P= 0.005). At the time of censor, 23.4% of patients with a presentation STK of < 6 U/l but only 7.9% of the patients with an STK of > 11 U/l were still alive. STK proved to be a highly significant prognostic indicator for the 270 melphalan‐treated patients (Chi2= 12·37; P, = 0.0004) but had no prognostic significance for the 277 ABCM (adriamycin, BCNU, cyclophosphamide and melphalan) treated patients (Chi2= 0.29; P= 0.59). When the STK data was stratified for serum B‐2‐microglobulin (SB2M) it was demonstrated that STK was independent of SB2M and provided additional prognostic information for patients who were treated with melphalan. Thus patients with both a low STK and SB2M had the best prognosis (median survival 1677 d) and those patients with a high STK and SB2M had the worst prognosis (median survival 519 d). STK is a good prognostic marker for patients treated with melphalan but the prognostic significance of STK may disappear with the introduction of new chemotherapy regimens.