DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i03.012

Pages: 230-232

Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) also known as Hodgkin lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cells, called B lymphocytes. When lymph nodes of Hodgkin’s lymphoma are examined microscopically, multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are the characteristic histopathological finding. In this study we studied the role of beta 2 microglobulin (B2M) as a marker of disease severity in Hodgkin lymphoma. 30 patients, diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and 30 age and sex matched healthy controls were included in this study. All patients were given 6 cycles of ABVD regimen. Sample was analysed for routine biochemistry and B2M. B2M levels were estimated by a commercial Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay kit for human B2M (DRG β2-MG ELISA). Mean serum B2M was 0.40± 0.38 µg/ml in controls. Levels were significantly raised in HL patients (4.20±1.88µg/ml, p<0.01).In this study 13(43.34%) patients presented with late stage (III + IV) and 17(56.66%) patients presented with early stage (I + II). It was found that patients with late stage had comparatively higher mean B2M levels (7.02±0.023µg/ml) as compared to those earlier stages(3.2±0.065µg/ml).This correlation was found to be statistically significant (p<0.01). Male patients suffering from HL had higher B2M (4.83±1.24 µg/ml) levels as compared to females (3.89±1.32 µg/ml) but the difference was statistically not significant. Patients with mediastinal large lymphnodes (bulky lymphadenopathy) had higher B2M levels (5.11±0.22 µg/ml) as compared to other HL patients (3.65±0.16, p <0.05 µg/ml).HL patients who presented with B symptoms had higher B2M levels (4.81±0.20 µg/ml) as compared to those without B symptoms (4.11±0.65, p>0.05 µg/ml). The conclusion in our study, B2M was found to be significantly associated with the severity of disease. Though, B2M has been discovered long time back but its role as a marker for the severity of disease has not been studied extens