The purpose of a classification is not only to group diseases with the same biological characteristics, but also to get insight into the pathogenesis and to define subgroups with different prognoses and different therapeutic approaches. In acute leukaemias the classification now most widely used is the French-American-British (FAB) classification as proposed in 1976, which was based on morpholo...

BACKGROUND Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is mainly a childhood malignancy but affects both children and adults. OBJECTIVE The study was conducted to evaluate a qualitative PCR based method for detection of clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangement as a marker of minimal residual disease in patients of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at the end of induction. METHOD It was a descriptive st...

We studied the effect of parental educational level (PEL), an indicator of socio-economic status (SES), on survival of children with acute lymphoblastic (ALL) and non-lymphoblastic leukaemia (ANLL). All children with ALL and ANLL diagnosed in The Netherlands in the period 1973-1979, registered by the Dutch Childhood Leukaemia Study Group and followed until 1991 were included. Bone marrow and bl...

Over three years, three children presented with anaemia, reticulocytopenia, and marrow erythroblastopenia. A pronounced lymphocytosis was also evident in two of the marrow aspirates, with increased numbers of cells bearing the immunophenotype TdT+, CD10+ HLA DR+, and cytoplasmic mu +, and reported to be compatible with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). The clinical course of the illness was ...

Major differences exist in the nature of leukaemia and lymphoma in low-income African children compared to those in the high-income countries. These include the absence of the peak incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in under-five-year olds that characterizes the disease in high-income countries. Conversely, chloroma association with acute myelogenous leukaemia (CA-AML/AMML) and Bu...

2.2.2 (a) (ii) – 172 In first paragraph, last line, replace 222 Ra with 224 RA. 2.2.2 (b) (ii) – 173 In last paragraph, line 9, replace: [The Working Group noted that four cases of lymphoid leukaemia were found among people treated with radium, consisting of one acute and three chronic dysplastic leukaemias.] with: [The Working Group noted that four cases of lymphoid leukaemia were found among ...

OBJECTIVE To report a case of severe Guillain-Barré syndrome in a 32-year old female patient diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who was on chemotherapy. CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND INTERVENTION The patient received chemotherapy including vincristine and steroids according to the Medical Research Council United Kingdom Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia-12 (MRC UKALL-12) protocol. On the 21...

Dear Editor, Methotrexate (MTX) is a frequently used chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and lymphoma. Besides oral and intravenous MTX, intrathecal MTX is an essential component of chemotherapy for ALL and is effective in preventing recurrences of central nervous system (CNS) leukaemia. Acute, subacute and chronic neurotoxicity have been obs...

Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP) is a clinicopathological entity with well-defined diagnostic criteria, which can be idiopathic or produced by a variety of biological processes. We describe the occurrence of BOOP in three children, one with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and two with acute promyelocytic leukaemia. In the three patients, BOOP developed 10-20 days after a cours...

A total of 398 cases of B cell lymphoproliferative disease were phenotypically characterised by membrane mouse red blood cell (MRBC) receptor, surface immunoglobulin, common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (CALLA), and FMC7 and T1 monoclonal antibody studies. Relations between chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), prolymphocytic leukaemia (PLL), and "prolymphocytoid" CLL variants were examined wit...