Role of Polyamines as Biomarkers in Lymphoma Patients: A Pilot Study

Lymphomas represent a heterogeneous and widely diversified group of neoplastic diseases rising from a variety of lymphoid subsets at heterogeneous differentiation stages. These lymphoproliferative disorders lead to the clinicopathological complexity of the classification of lymphoid neoplasms, describing to date more than 40 categories of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and 5 categories of Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL). Inflammation has been shown to play a key role in the evolution of cancer diseases, and it might be interesting to understand their role also in the context of lymphoid neoplasms. Among circulating biomarkers, the role of polyamines belonging to the arginine and lysine metabolism is relevant. Through modern analytical methods, such as mass spectrometry (MS), we are enabled to increase knowledge and improve our understanding of cancer metabolism. In this study, high-resolution mass spectrometry was used in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography (LC-HRMS) to measure serum levels of polyamines and identify possible diagnostic circulating biomarkers, potentially allowing a more accurate assessment of the diagnostic stratification of lymphoma patients and robust comparisons between different patient groups.