Rapidly Progressing Plasma Cell Leukemia with Underlying Plasmablastic Morphology: A Rare Case Report of a 25-Year Old Male.

Multiple myeloma constitutes a wide spectrum of diseases, ranging from slow-growing monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance to rapidly progressing plasma cell leukemia. It is a very rarely diagnosed hematological malignancy in those less than 30 years of age. A 25-year-old male presented with complaints of fatigue and low-grade fever.

CML in Elderly: Does Age Matter?

The median age of diagnosis for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in India is 35 years on the contrary to western literature which is 47 years. The outcome of the elderly patient in CML TKI era is not reported from the Indian population. However, Western literature suggests that use of TKI alleviate the adverse impact of age in outcomes of CML.

T-Cell Prolymphocytic Leukemia: An Experience from a Tertiary Cancer Centre in South India.

T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) is a rare lymphoid malignancy with dismal prognosis. Most patients have increased lymphocyte count (>1,00,000/dL) and widespread disease at presentation. Despite high response rate seen with alemtuzumab, the disease relapse is inevitable.

Study of clinical, haematological and cytogenetic profile of patients with acute erythroid leukaemia.

Background: Acute erythroid leukaemia (AEL) is a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), constituting <5% of all the cases of AML. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 classified AEL into two types: (1) erythroid/myeloid leukaemia which required ≥50% erythroid precursors with ≥20% of the non-erythroid cells to be myeloid blasts and (2) pure erythroleukemia (pEL) with ≥80% erythroblasts. The WHO 2008 classification kept these subcategories, but made erythroleukemia a diagnosis of exclusion.

A novel Monoclonal Antibody against Notch1 Targets Leukemia-associated Mutant Notch1 and Depletes Therapy Resistant Cancer Stem Cells in Solid Tumors.

Higher Notch signaling is known to be associated with hematological and solid cancers. We developed a potential immunotherapeutic monoclonal antibody (MAb) specific for the Negative Regulatory Region of Notch1 (NRR). The MAb604.

Wilms' tumor: single centre retrospective study from South India.

Wilms' tumor is the most common malignant renal tumor in paediatric age group, and is classically managed by multimodal treatment which involves surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The last few decades have seen a dramatic change in the prognosis of this disease, which once was a uniformly lethal malignancy. While there is plenty of data in world literature on the outcome of Wilms' tumor, there is paucity of data from India.

G-banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization in childhood acute myeloid leukemia from South India.

Background: The current WHO classification of hematologic malignancies defines distinct entities of myeloid disorders based on the presence of recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities. Diagnostic clonal chromosomal abnormalities provide important prognostic information and are among the most important factors in predicting initial response to chemotherapy, duration of remission and overall survival. 

Methods: This study analyzed chromosomal abnormalities in bone marrow aspirates of 50 children diagnosed with acute myeloid leuckemia (AML).

A rare cytogenetic presentation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML-M2).

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;21)(q22;q22) generating the AML1/ETO fusion gene on 8q22 is a distinct type of AML t(8;21) category (WHO)/AML-M2 (FAB), generally associated with a favourable prognosis. Variant additional chromosomal abnormalities are frequently reported. We report three adult cases of this category with unusual karyotype.

Rare and recurrent chromosomal abnormalities and their clinical relevance in pediatric acute leukemia of south Indian population.

Background And Objectives: This cytogenetic study detects a wide variety of common, rare and novel chromosomal abnormalities in patients with hematological disorders, providing valuable diagnostic and prognostic information.

Materials And Methods: We addressed the utility of the cytogenetic technique in 50 patients of pediatric acute leukemia prospectively.

Results: Successful cultures were found in 44 patients (88%) and abnormal karyotypes in 22 (44%).

Combined study of cytogenetics and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a tertiary cancer centre in South India.

FISH is one of the most sensitive molecular methods to detect genetic abnormalities with DNA probes. When cytogenetic studies are normal or insufficient, FISH may detect cryptic rearrangements, rare or slowly proliferative abnormal populations in non-mitotic cells. We cytogenetically evaluated 70 childhood ALL - 67.

Accelerated phase of chediak higashi syndrome mimicking lymphoma--a case report.

Chediak Higashi Syndrome (CHS) is a rare autosomal recessive disease, characterized by partial oculocutaneous albinism, frequent pyogenic infections, and the presence of abnormal large granules in leukocytes and other granule containing cells. The abnormal granules are readily seen in blood and marrow granulocytes. About 50% to 85% of patients eventually enter an accelerated phase, manifested by fever, lymphadenopathy, anemia, jaundice, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and widespread lymphohistiocytic organ infiltrates.

Bilateral nephromegaly simulating wilms tumor: a rare initial manifestation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

A 7-year-old boy was referred with a provisional diagnosis of bilateral Wilms tumor. Peripheral smear revealed elevated leukocyte count with 90% blasts. Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy were hypercellular with sheets of blasts.

Bone marrow involvement at presentation in pediatric non-haematological small round cell tumours.

Pediatric small round cell tumors (SRCT) are a group of neoplasms occurring in children, which have in common a cytomorphology of groups of small round cells with scanty cytoplasm. The common SRCT encountered are neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, Ewing's sarcoma/peripheral neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), rhabdomyosarcoma and lymphoma which show varying degrees of bone marrow involvement and bone marrow evaluation forms a part of the initial staging procedure. This study was undertaken to evaluate marrow involvement at presentation in pediatric non hematological SRCT.

The rheumatological prodrome: an unusual inaugural manifestation of acute myeloblastic leukemia.

Uncommon patterns of presentation of acute leukemia pose diagnostic problems. A rheumatological prodrome in acute myeloblastic leukemia is very rare. We describe one such patient who had a normal haemogram.

del(2)(p23) as a sole abnormality in a case of acute myeloid leukemia.

We report a case of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) [FAB-M5a] showing a deletion of the short arm of chromosome 2 at band p23 as a sole abnormality in the bone marrow cells. This abnormality deserves to be considered as an established nonrandom entity in AML.