Acute leukemia

Acute leukemia is a group of hematopoietic cancers that result from malignant transformation of a hematopoietic (hematopoietic) stem cell.

Tumor change can affect a number of myeloid or lymphoid, based on which we distinguish two types of acute leukemia:
 * Acute myeloid leukemia
 * Acute lymphoid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease caused by malignant transformation of hematopoietic stem cells that differentiate into myeloid or myelomonocytic precursor cells (blasts), more rarely erythroid or megakaryocyte blasts. The autoregulatory processes fail, the cells do not differentiate, but have preserved their ability to proliferate.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a disease of the group of malignant lymphoproliferative disorders arising from the transformation of a hematopoetic stem cell of a lymphoid lineage. These cells lose their ability to differentiate, but retain their ability to proliferate beyond physiological regulation. It is the most common malignancy of childhood with an incidence of 7.7 / 100,000 in the age group 1–5 years, in adolescence the incidence decreases with another gradual increase in senior age. In total, in the age group over 18 years, the annual incidence in the Czech Republic is 1 / 100,000 inhabitants. The incidence is higher in patients with Down syndrome.

A related disease is lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL), whose cells morphologically and immunophenotypically correspond to ALL cells. It often affects the mediastinum and is usually based on the T-line. The difference compared to ALL is in no or only minimal bone marrow infiltration and the absence of peripheral blood blasts. It is also a very aggressive malignancy, similar treatment regimens are used as in ALL.

Both of these diseases, ALL and LBL, can be derived from B or T cell precursors, with about 3/4 of the cases being B-line.

Related articles

 * Hematopoiesis
 * Stem cells
 * Acute myeloid leukemia
 * Acute lymphoid leukemia
 * Chronic myeloid leukemia
 * Chronic lymphocytic leukemia