The early stages of leukaemia

Abstract

Of recent years there has been a growing literature on the subject of leukaemia in its earlier stages, and it is becoming apparent that conditions formerly thought to be separate entities, are actually unusual manifestations of a well recognised type. Thus the classification and nomenclature tends to become simplified, and terms such as "leucanaemia" and "mixed leukaemia" are passing into disuse, although such a horror as "aleukaemic leukaemia" still survives to offend the aesthetic sense. The difficulty remains that apparently the marrow may be the seat of a leukaemic process before the blood is affected.But although more attention is being paid to these early cases, the literature available is still very small as compared with that on fully established leukaemia, partly because the early condition may pass unrecognised as such, and partly because the onset is so insidious that patients do not seek advice until an advanced stage is reached.Six cases in all are reported herein, three acute, and three chronic. These were all admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh under the charge of Dr Goodall to whom I am indebted for facilities to study them. Of the acute cases, two are lymphatic leukaemia, and one chloroma, the others are chronic lymphatic leukaemia, one of them occurring some years after the successful treatment of B anti's disease.