title: Aggressive Natural Killer-Cell Leukemia: report of five cases and review of the literature.
abstract: We report 5 cases of Aggressive Natural Killer-Cell Leukemia (ANKL) diagnosed and treated in our institution within a period of 5 years. Presented are the clinical, hematological, immunophenotypic, immunogenotypic and cytogenetic data. ANKL is a very rare disorder. On review of the English-language literature only 68 published cases were identified. Analysis was performed on a total number of 73 cases (68 from the literature and the series of 5 presented hereby). Presented and discussed are the epidemiology, clinical picture, morphology, cell marker, immunogenotype, cytogenetics, and survival data of the analysis, as well as the associations with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). To our knowledge this is the largest series of cases of ANKL analyzed and therefore it is hoped to contribute towards a better characterization of the disorder.
authors.affiliation: Haematology Laboratory Auckland City Hospital Auckland New Zealand. aruskova@dml.co.nz
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruskova
authors.forename: Rekha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thula
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000473:pathology*; D007938:Leukemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015996:Survival Rate