Flowcytometry in Acute Leukemia

Acute leukemia is a heterogeneous group of malignancies with varying clinical, morphologic, immonophenotypic, genetic and molecular characteristics. Despite the increasing importance of molecular and genetic features in the sub-classification of acute leukemias, morphologic and immunophenotypic analysis remains the main modality to diagnose acute leukemia for initial evaluation and providing a rapid assessment to direct specific molecular genetic tests. There are many immonophenotypic markers which are associated with bad prognosis in acute leukemia. Flowcytometric immunophenotyping also help in deciding therapy with monoclonal antibodies directed against leukemia surface antigens including CD19, CD20, CD22, and CD52 which are particularly beneficial where further intensification of chemotherapy is impossible, particularly when there is minimal overlapping toxicity. In addition to that, flowcytometry is the main stay of evaluating minimal residual disease, particularly in cases without any specific molecular signature.