Medline ® Abstracts for References 103,110

The clinical and laboratory features of the stages in the evolution of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia are reviewed. Based on a retrospective analysis of 34 patients who died with an acute myelomonoblastic leukemia, the "preleukemic syndrome" has been shown to display a clinical picture sufficiently specific to permit its recognition prospectively (i.e., before the development of overt leukemia). The results to date of a variety of prospective studies are reviewed, and the approach(es) to the management of these cases is considered.

Approaches to the diagnosis and classification of preleukemic states involving chronic cytopenias are presented and discussed. Diagnosis of these states is facilitated by the identification of anomalies in all the myeloid cell lines (i.e., those derived from the bone marrow). These cellular anomalies may be morphologic, biochemical, or functional in nature or may affect the quantity of cell in each line in the bone marrow and the peripheral blood. Such anomalies may occur alone or may be associated. A tentative classifiction is proposed which is based on one or several of these anomalies. Among the quantitative criteria of classification is a moderate and static excess of myeloblasts and promyelocytes in the bone marrow. Refractory anemia with an excess of myeloblasts (RAEM) in the most frequent of these states. Its main clinical and hematologic features are described. The disease course is quite typical, the mean survival being 20 months; some patients survive for more than 30 months. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was the cause of death in less than 28% of cases. Infection in the absence of severe neutropenia was frequent. The relationship between RAEM and AML is disc,ssed, and the individual characteristics of RAEM are emphasized.