B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: clinical and biological aspects.
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia of B-cell phenotype (B-ALL) is uncommon. We studied eight cases of B-ALL, investigating the clinical characteristics as well as the biological features. Cytology revealed a typical L3 profile in most cases, but in one case the morphological diagnosis was L2 and morphometric analysis indicated that the blasts in B-ALL were larger than in other ALLs. Cytogenetic study detected the typical translocations (8; 14) and (8; 22) in most of the cases. Abnormalities of the long arm of the chromosome 1 were found in four cases and a major aneuploidy was observed in one case. Cell-cycle analysis showed a high degree of proliferation with, in all cases, a small fraction of cells in G1 with low protein content (corresponding to early G1). All these biological characteristics must be related to the poor prognosis of this disease.
Mazoyer
G
G
Service d'hématologie, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Lyon, France.
Ffrench
M
M
Magaud
J P
JP
Manel
A M
AM
Charrin
C
C
Gentilhomme
O
O
Bryon
P A
PA
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001402:B-Lymphocytes; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D007964:Leukocytosis / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000209:etiology; D014178:Translocation, Genetic