We report a case of bone marrow necrosis preceding infantile acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Bone marrow necrosis is a rare antemortem event and has been known to be present in many conditions, notably in haematological malignancies like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. This case was a 6-month-old Chinese boy who was referred to Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for further investigati...

Circulating antibody to endotoxin core glycolipid and total serum immunoglobulin concentrations were measured in 86 children with cancer (54 with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, four with acute myeloid leukaemia, and 28 with various solid tumours). Measurements were made before treatment in the group with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia as well as when patients were both on and off chemotherapy. I...

Considerable heterogeneity of lymphoblast morphology in childhood B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has been observed. One case showed unusual monocytic features and emphasised the need for marker studies in the accurate definition of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia phenotypes. B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is rare but may have been previously underestimated by morphological misinterpre...

-A study has been made of the thymidine labelling index (TLI) of marrow blast cells in 201 adults with untreated acute leukaemia. There was no significant difference between the TLI in 172 patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia and 29 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The TLI did not correlate with the age, sex, peripheral-blood or marrow blast-cell count, or the platelet count a...

Daunorubicin has been used in the treatment of six cases of acute lymphoblastic and thirteen cases of acute myeloblastic and mono-myeloblastic leukaemia. Complete remissions were obtained in eight patients, three with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and five with acute myeloblastic leukaemia. Marrow aplasia makes the drug difficult to administer, but no patients died from this cause, in this seri...

ABSTRACT Secondary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (sALL), defined as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia following another malignancy, irrespective of previous treatment, is a rare disease, and its biological characteristics have not been accurately described. We report the case of a 24-year old patient followed for Hodgkin's lymphoma at our clinic, who develops and is diagnosed, less than a year afte...

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a malignant disorder of lymphoid progenitor cells, affects both children and adults, with peak prevalence between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Steady progress in development of effective treatments has led to a cure rate of more than 80% in children, creating opportunities for innovative approaches that would preserve past gains in leukaemia-free survival while redu...

Children with ataxia telangiectasia have a high probability of developing acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and have increased sensitivity to chemotherapy and irradiation. We report a 51/2 year old boy who had undiagnosed ataxia telangiectasia when he presented with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He subsequently developed a chemoradiation induced leukoencephalopathy after conventional central nerv...

A case of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, associated with cells resembling Gaucher cells in the bone marrow, is reported. The patient had no evidence of inherited Gaucher's disease and the ultrastructural appearance of the cells was consistent with pseudo-Gaucher cells described in other haematological diseases. This is the first report of these cells in association with acute lymphoblastic leuk...

A 41 year old female developed reactive haemophagocytic histiocytosis secondary to herpes simplex infection, during remission induction for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. She recovered fully with acyclovir and supportive treatment. Previous publications on the association between acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and haemophagocytic syndrome are reviewed, and the nature of the haemophagocytic disor...