Riassunto
- A life-threatening disorder that predominately occurs in older adults.
- Many subtypes exist, of which acute promyelocytic leukaemia merits specific management.
- Characteristically, abnormal blasts are present in the peripheral blood and normal haematopoiesis is reduced. Definitive diagnosis requires bone marrow biopsy. Presence of blast cells in >20% of the bone marrow cells confirms the diagnosis.
- Cytogenetic abnormalities are prognostically important and affect patient management.
- Most patients are treated with chemotherapy induction, consolidation, and maintenance regimens. Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation may also be used in select patients.
- It is important to rapidly identify acute promyelocytic leukaemia, as associated coagulopathy may be life threatening.
- Although most patients achieve complete remission, a high incidence of relapse leads to poor overall survival.
Other related conditions
- Tumour lysis syndrome
- Disseminated intravascular coagulation
- Febrile neutropenia
- Graft-versus-host disease
- Assessment of pancytopenia
- Assessment of neutropenia
- Assessment of anaemia
- Assessment of thrombocytopenia
- Assessment of lymphadenopathy
- Assessment of splenomegaly
- Acute lymphocytic leukaemia
- Chronic myelogenous leukaemia
- Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
- Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Myelodysplastic syndrome
- Myelofibrosis
- Aplastic anaemia
- Blast crisis
- Polycythaemia vera
- Essential thrombocytosis
- Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria
- Vitamin B12 deficiency
- Smoking cessation
- Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
- Type 1 neurofibromatosis
- Down's syndrome
ultimo aggiornamento: ago 15, 2012
