RT Book, Section
A1 Fraser, James W.
A1 Murphy, Janet E.
A1 Attar, Eyal C.
A2 Chabner, Bruce A.
A2 Longo, Dan L.
SR Print(0)
ID 1127647891
T1 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Lymphoma
T2 Harrison's Manual of Oncology, 2e
YR 2016
FD 2016
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071793254
LK hemonc.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1127647891
RD 2024/04/18
AB Acute  lymphoblastic  leukemia  (ALL)  is  a  highly  aggressive  neoplasm  of  hematopoietic  cells  of  lymphoid  lineage.  Collections  of  abnormal  T-  or  B  lymphoblasts  may  be  found  in  the  bone  marrow,  peripheral  blood,  and  other  extramedullary  sites.  ALL  is  predominantly  a  childhood  cancer,  with  two-thirds  of  new  cases  diagnosed  in  children  younger  than  15  years  of  age.  ALL  was  uniformly  fatal  until  the  1960  but,  due  to  advances  in  chemotherapy  and  supportive  care,  is  now  cured  in  over  80%  of  children.  Adults  diagnosed  with  ALL,  in  contrast,  have  a  poor  overall  prognosis.  Important  factors  in  assessing  prognosis  are  the  age  of  the  patient,  type  of  lymphoid  cell  involved  (T  cell  vs  B  cell),  and  the  presence  of  high-risk  cytogenetic  markers,  such  as  the  t(9;22)  (BCR–ABL)  translocation.  Burkitt's  lymphoma,  a  malignancy  of  mature  B  cells,  has  been  historically  classified  as  a  B-ALL  due  to  its  high-grade  leukemia-like  features  but  is  both  diagnostically  and  prognostically  a  separate  entity  from  precursor  B-ALL.  Burkitt's  lymphoma  is  addressed  in  the  chapter  on  non-Hodgkin  lymphomas.