| acute leukaemia | <haematology> A rapidly progressive cancer of the blood of sudden onset and characterised by the uncontrolled proliferation of immature blood cells which take over the bone marrow and spill into the blood stream. If left untreated is fatal within a few weeks or months. See: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia. Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (11 Nov 1997) |
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| acute lymphoblastic leukaemia | <haematology> A rapidly progressing cancer of the blood affecting the type of white blood cell known as lymphocytes. Approximately 650 new cases are diagnosed every year in the UK and it is the most common form of childhood leukaemia. Acronym: ALL Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (11 Nov 1997) |
| acute lymphocytic leukaemia | <radiology> 95% of cases of leukaemia in children, bone changes in 50-70% of kids (vs. 10% in adults); seen as early as 1 month after onset of symptoms, wrists and knees most commonly affected, bony defects: metaphyseal radiolucent bands! (similar findings in scurvy, JRA, syphilis), osteolytic lesions, periosteal reaction, osteosclerosis (12 Dec 1998) |
| acute monocytic leukaemia | <haematology> The most common translocation in this disorder of poorly differentiated monocytic cells involves chromosome region 11q in a large percentage of cases. The translocation involves a cellular oncogene, c-ets which is mapped to the 11q23-24 region. The most common translocations reported are t(6;11), t(9;11), t(11;17) and t(11;19), of which t(9;11) (p21-22;q23) is by far the most frequently detected and implicated in acute myeloid leukaemia. The cells express CD14 surface antigen, which is diagnostic of monocytic cells. Acronym: AML Classification: FAB M5 (07 Apr 1998) |
| acute myeloblastic leukaemia | <haematology> A rapidly progressing cancer of the blood affecting immature cells of the bone marrow, usually of the white cell population. It is much more common in adults than in children. Symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, fevers, weakness, pallor, bone pains, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, easy bruising, enlarged lymph nodes and joint pains. Treatment includes chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplant. This leukaemia demonstrates granulocyte differentiation, eosinophilia and Auer rods and is associated with a reciprocal translocation between 8 and 21 (q22;q22), which is the most common translocation in acute myeloid leukaemia and is found more often in younger patients than in older patients. The oncogene involved in this translocation is AML1, which can be detected by Southern blot. Numerical abnormalities, particularly monosomy-7, trisomy-4, trisomy-8, trisomy-21, -Y, monosomy-7 and deletions of the long arms of chromosomes 5 and 7 are quite common in all acute myeloid leukaemia and not restricted to any one FAB classification. Many of these abnormalities are observed at diagnosis and at later stage disease, particularly after chemotherapy. Prognosis is generally more favorable than in FAB-M2 patients showing no translocation, because the latter patients show better remission rates for longer periods of time. Immunophenotyping is useful in diagnosis and expression of one or more of the myeloid antigens CD13, CD14 or CD33 must be detected to make a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia. Acronym: AML Incidence: 2,000 new cases per year in the UK. Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (07 Apr 1998) |
| acute myelogenous leukaemia | <haematology> A rapidly progressing cancer of the blood affecting immature cells of the bone marrow, usually of the white cell population. It is much more common in adults than in children. Symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, fevers, weakness, pallor, bone pains, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, easy bruising, enlarged lymph nodes and joint pains. Treatment includes chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplant. This leukaemia demonstrates granulocyte differentiation, eosinophilia and Auer rods and is associated with a reciprocal translocation between 8 and 21 (q22;q22), which is the most common translocation in acute myeloid leukaemia and is found more often in younger patients than in older patients. The oncogene involved in this translocation is AML1, which can be detected by Southern blot. Numerical abnormalities, particularly monosomy-7, trisomy-4, trisomy-8, trisomy-21, -Y, monosomy-7 and deletions of the long arms of chromosomes 5 and 7 are quite common in all acute myeloid leukaemia and not restricted to any one FAB classification. Many of these abnormalities are observed at diagnosis and at later stage disease, particularly after chemotherapy. Prognosis is generally more favorable than in FAB-M2 patients showing no translocation, because the latter patients show better remission rates for longer periods of time. Immunophenotyping is useful in diagnosis and expression of one or more of the myeloid antigens CD13, CD14 or CD33 must be detected to make a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia. Acronym: AML Incidence: 2,000 new cases per year in the UK. Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (07 Apr 1998) |
| acute myeloid leukaemia | <haematology> A rapidly progressing cancer of the blood affecting immature cells of the bone marrow, usually of the white cell population. It is much more common in adults than in children. Symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, fevers, weakness, pallor, bone pains, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, easy bruising, enlarged lymph nodes and joint pains. Treatment includes chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplant. This leukaemia demonstrates granulocyte differentiation, eosinophilia and Auer rods and is associated with a reciprocal translocation between 8 and 21 (q22;q22), which is the most common translocation in acute myeloid leukaemia and is found more often in younger patients than in older patients. The oncogene involved in this translocation is AML1, which can be detected by Southern blot. Numerical abnormalities, particularly monosomy-7, trisomy-4, trisomy-8, trisomy-21, -Y, monosomy-7 and deletions of the long arms of chromosomes 5 and 7 are quite common in all acute myeloid leukaemia and not restricted to any one FAB classification. Many of these abnormalities are observed at diagnosis and at later stage disease, particularly after chemotherapy. Prognosis is generally more favorable than in FAB-M2 patients showing no translocation, because the latter patients show better remission rates for longer periods of time. Immunophenotyping is useful in diagnosis and expression of one or more of the myeloid antigens CD13, CD14 or CD33 must be detected to make a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia. Acronym: AML Incidence: 2,000 new cases per year in the UK. Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (07 Apr 1998) |
| acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia | <haematology> A form of leukaemia which is characterised by the proliferation of immature bone marrow precursor cells in the marrow and immature white blood cells (granulocytes) in the bloodstream. Occurs primarily in adults and in infants under 1 year of age. Complications include abnormal bleeding and susceptibility to infections. Symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, fevers, weakness, pallor, bone pains, bleeding gums, nosebleeds, easy bruising, enlarged lymph nodes and joint pains. Trisomy-8 is the most common cytogenetic abnormality observed, followed by monosomy-7 and monosomy-5. Approximately 8% of cases show trisomy-8, mostly in AML (M1), AM (M4) and acute monocytic leukaemia (M5). Many pre-leukaemic conditions, acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia and secondary leukemia show monosomy-7 or deletion of the long arm of chromosome 7. Treatment includes chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplant. Acronym: ANLL Incidence: 2.5 cases per 100,000 (all ages). Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (07 Apr 1998) |
| acute promyelocytic leukaemia | Leukaemia presenting as a severe bleeding disorder, with infiltration of the bone marrow by abnormal promyelocytes and myelocytes, a low plasma fibrinogen, and defective coagulation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| adult T-cell leukaemia | Lymph nodes show a mixture of small and large atypical cells which are polymorphic and express nuclear pleiomorphism. Adult T-cell leukaemia is caused by HTLV-1 and is rare in the US and Europe but common in Japan. Tumour cells express CD2, CD3, CD5 and lack CD7. The most common chromosome change reported in adult T-cell leukaemia is presence of the 14q + marker (05 Mar 2000) |
| aleukaemic leukaemia | Leukaemia in which abnormal (or leukaemic) cells are absent in the peripheral blood. (05 Mar 2000) |
| avian leukaemia-sarcoma complex | A term applied to a group of transmissible virus-induced diseases of chickens causing sarcoma, myeloblastosis, erythroblastosis, leukosis, osteopetrosis, and lymphomatosis. These agents are closely related viruses (avian leukosis-sarcoma virus) causing prolferation of immature erythroid, myeloid, or lymphoid cells, a division of the RNA tumour viruses (subfamily Oncovirinae) causing the avian leukosis-sarcoma complex of diseases; the viruses are subgrouped according to antigenic characteristics and growth in defined types of tissue culture cells. Synonym: avian erythroblastosis virus, avian leukosis-sarcoma virus, avian lymphomatosis virus, avian myeloblastosis virus, avian sarcoma virus, fowl erythroblastosis virus, fowl lymphomatosis virus, fowl myeloblastosis virus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| basophilic leukaemia | A form of granulocytic leukaemia in which there are unusually great numbers of basophilic granulocytes in the tissues and circulating blood; in some instances, the immature and mature basophilic forms may represent from 40 to 80% of the total numbers of white blood cells. Synonym: mast cell leukaemia. (05 Mar 2000) |
| B-cell leukaemia | A test which detects the presence of antigens on the surface of B lymphocytes. These antigens can indicate the presence of leukaemia. most often this is used to detect and differentiate chronic lymphocytic leukaemia from acute lymphocytic leukaemia. Origin: Gr. Haima = blood (27 Sep 1997) |
| bovine leukaemia | A lymphoid neoplastic disease in cattle caused by the bovine leukaemia virus. Enzootic bovine leukosis may take the form of lymphosarcoma, malignant lymphoma, or leukaemia but the presence of malignant cells in the blood is not a consistent finding. (12 Dec 1998) |