The Nature of Leukaemia

Abstract

The classification of leukaemia as a pathological process has proved difficult, as it exhibits features of more than one of the main disease types. It is most widely recognised as a neoplastic disease, but it does not behave entirely in this way ; the remitting and relapsing course of the chronic leukeamias is not at all typical of the malignant diseases. In some respects, leukaemia resembles a profound metabolic disturbance, while its presentation and course in the acute form are similar to those of a fulminating infection. This last comparison is rather difficult since severe local infection and even septicaemia are sometimes found in association with the acute types of leukaemia. Although a viral agent has been established as causative in avian leukaemias, no micro-organism has yet been shown to be associated with the human forms of the disease. The uncontrolled proliferation of primitive cells of the leucopoietic system and the capacity of these cells to infiltrate various tissues with an eventual fatal termination is in keeping with a neoplastic process and may represent an extreme form, in company with such conditions as diffuse myelomatosis. However, local deposits of leukaemic tissue such as chloroma are not as common as the local type of myeloma.