Red blood cells (RBC) from 69 patients with advanced cancer and 37 healthy controls were subjected to polyamine determination by using high-performance liquid chromatography. The polyamine contents in normal human RBC were spermidine 15.04 & 3.63 nmol and spermine 8.82 * 3.12 nmol per 10" RBC. Spermidine and spermine levels in RBC were elevated in patients with cancer (p < 0.005). Serial studies in seven patients with cancer indicated that both polyamines in RBC were reduced after successful surgery. Our data indicate that the determination of polyamine levels in RBC is clinically useful as a marker of disease activity in patients with cancer. Cancer 45108-I 1 1, 1980. MONG THE ALIPHATIC AMINES, a group of poly-A amines, spermidine and spermine and their precursor diamine, putrescine, deserves special attention in experimental biological systems. These amines appear to play important roles in cell proliferation and synthesis of nucleic acids and protein^.^.'^^'".^^ Moreover, these polyamines are useful as markers of neoplastic growth and indicators of effectiveness of chemotherapy .2,fi-I3,17,19,22,26,29 Increased excretion of those compounds in the urine of patients with cancer was described by Russell et al. in 1971 .l6,lY Since then, there have been several reports describing the estimation of polyamines in various biological samples such as urine,G-9,1 1 ,l2,17,26,29 cerebrospinal fluid,I3 and bone marrow aspirates]' from the patients with malignancy.
Despite recent developments in sensitive quantitative methods using high-performance liquid chromatography ,1,24-28,30 gas chromatography-mass spectrome t r ~, ~' thin-layer c h r o m a t ~g r a p h y , " ~~ and radioimmunoassay," a simple, fast and accurate method of analyzing polyamines has been sought. We recently developed a simple and highly sensitive fluorimetric method for the determination of polyamines using high-performance liquid chromatography, From the