Which are the leukaemic cells?
Two features are known about acute myeloid leukaemia in man: (1) the long time-scale from identifiable leukaemogenic stimulus and onset of the clinical disease and (2) the successful induction and duration of long clinical remission. These indicate three probabilities: First, that the target cell for leukaemogenetic insult (in AML) is the pluripotent stem cell; second, that the leukaemic stem line is a small minority population within the total leukaemic cell mass; third, when the leukaemic stem line is not greatly exceeding the normal stem cell numbers, its proliferation may be still under partial control.
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology