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Hemolytic Anemia, a Host Response to Malignancy^*

( John Collins Warren Laboratories, Huntington Memorial Hospital, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.)

Serial red cell survival studies were performed on four patients with metastatic carcinoma of the breast and on one patient with malignant melanoma. The life span of the donor erythrocyte was initially normal in the patients with carcinoma of the breast, but an anemia with a hemolytic component appeared in each case within 1 month of death. In the patient with malignant melanoma, who was also receiving x-ray therapy, the red cell survival was shortened during the entire last 9 months of life. When these studies were correlated with the course of the disease as evaluated by symptoms, serum and urinary calcium values, and, in one case, serum aldolase activity, the degree of hemolysis seemed to parallel the systemic effects of malignancy. The possible etiologies of this hemolytic phenomenon were discussed.

^* This investigation was supported in part by research grant #C-2421 from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.

This is publication No. 906 of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University.

Received 1/ 7/57.