EFFECT OF CHEMOTHERAPY ON THYROID-HORMONE CONCENTRATION IN PATIENTS WITH MALIGNANT HEMATOLOGIC DISEASES

Malignant hematologic diseases are severe illnesses for which complex forms of treatment are used and to which a great variety of metabolic changes are anticipated, Both lymphomas and leukemias, as well as chem otherapy, can induce abnormalities in thyroid hormone metabolism witho ut overt disease, thus leading to what is known as euthyroid sick synd rome (ESS). In the present report, 25 patients with lymphomas and leuk emias were studied to evaluate the effect of chemotherapy on thyroid h ormone concentration, After chemotherapy, the most frequent and signif icant alteration was a decrease in serum triiodothyronine concentratio n.