title: Where does transformation occur in acute leukemia?
abstract: We studied 43 consecutive cases of acute leukemia for evidence of hybrid leukemia including biphenotypic or bilineal involvement. Twenty-two were initially diagnosed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 21 as acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Techniques included morphology, cytochemistry, immune phenotyping and cytogenetics. Thirty-one cases seemed restricted to one lineage. Twelve cases showed involvement of both lymphoid and myeloid cells. Dual staining immune phenotyping showed coexpression of diverse lineage markers. These data indicate a considerable proportion of unselected cases of acute leukemia are hybrid leukemias. These data are consistent with the notion that transformation frequently occurs in a stem or progenitor cell.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine 90024-1678.
authors.forename: G X
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wormsley
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sparkes
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Naeim
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Gale
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007938:Leukemia / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology