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.