High prevelance of chronic magnesium deficiency in T cell lymphoblastic leukemia and chronic zinc deficiency in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and malignant lymphoma

Magnesium and zinc are the elements having essential roles in regulation of cell growth, division and differentiation. There have been some studies in the literature suggesting an association between the: deficiency of these elements and the development of malignant disorders. In this study hair and serum zinc and magnesium levels were investigated in children with acute l ymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and malignant lymphoma (ML) at the time of init ial diagnosis. Ten children with T-cell ALL, 10 children with B-precursor A LL, 5 children with Burkitt's Lymphoma (BL), 11 children with Hodgkin's lym phoma (HL), 10 children with non-Burkitt non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NBNHL) and 12 age and sex matched healthy children as a control group were included i n the study. Mean hair magnesium levels in all of the groups of the patient s were lower than the levels in the control group bur the difference was st atistically significant only in the children with T cell ALL comparable to the controls (28.9+/-3.9 mug/g and 87.6+/-18.5 mug/g respectiveley, p<0.05) . Mean serum magnesium levels in all the cohorts were not significantly dif ferent than those in controls (p>0.05 in each comparison). Mean hair zinc l evels in the patients with T-cell, B-precursor ALL, BL, HL, NBNHL were 103. 4+/-14.6 mug/g, 100.9+/-7.8 mug/g, 91.1+/-19 mug/g, 72.5+/-9.1 mug/g, 103.2 +/-12.2 mug/g respectively. Each of these levels were significantly lower t han the mean hair zinc levels of the control group(141.2+/-9.6 mug/g, p<0.0 5 in each comparison). Although mean serum zinc levels in all of the groups were also decreased, the differences were statistically significant only i n the groups with B-precursor ALL, HL and NBNHL (75.9+/-5.29<mu>g/dl, 68.6/-7.3 mug/dl, 85.7+/-5.5 mug/dl respectively) when compared with controls ( 105.1+/-9.9 mug/dl, p>0.05 in each comparison). Hair magnesium and zinc lev els showed a positive correlation with each other in all the groups (r cong ruent to0.5). No significant difference was found in the mean hair/serum ma gnesium and zinc levels between malnourished and nonmalnourished patients. In conclusion, regarding the results of our study and previous data in the literature chronic magnesium and zinc deficiency seems to be associated wit h the development of ALL and malignant lymphoma in a group of patients.