The Acute Monocytic Leukemias

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The clinical and laboratory features of 37 patients with variants of acute monocytic leukemia are described. Three of these 37 patients who had extensive extramedullary leukemic tissue infiltration are examples of true histiocytic lymphomas. Three additional patients with undifferentiated leukemias, 1 patient with refractory anemia with excess of blasts, 1 patient with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, 1 patient with B lymphocyte diffuse histiocytic lymphoma and 1 patient with null cell, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)-positive lymphoblastic lymphoma had bone marrow cells with monocytic features. Another patient had dual populations of lymphoid and monocytoid leukemic cells. The true monocytic leukemias, acute monocytic leukemia (AMOL) and acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMMOL) are closely related to acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) morphologically and by their response to chemotherapy. Like AML, the leukemic cells from the AMMOL and AMOL patients form leukemic clusters in semisolid media. Cytochemical staining of leukemic cells for nonspecific esterases, presence of Fc receptor on the cell surface, phagocytic ability, low TdT activity, presence of surface ruffles and ridges on scanning EM, elevations of serum lysozyme and clinical manifestations of leukemic tissue infiltration are features which accompanied monocytic differentiation in these cases.