Immunophenotyping of acute leukaemias by flow cytometry: a review

To provide an overview of the utility of flow cytometry for phenotyping of acute leukaemias and selection-of monoclonal antibodies.

The literature review was obtained through internet, journals and chapters in the relevant books.

Relevant articles and chapters on immunophenotyping of acute leukaemias were selected from respected international journals and books in the field of haematology and were reviewed.

Complete articles relevant to the topic were selected and reviewed and the necessary information extracted for this review.

Flow cytometry has been used extensively in recent years to characterise haemopoeitic malignancies and done routinely in the developed world. This technique has greatly improved the diagnosis and classification of haemopoeitic malignancies and has been recommended by World Health Organisation classification (WHO) of tumours of haemopoeitic and lymphoid tissue. Application of flow cytometry for the diagnosis of leukaemias has been recently introduced in Kenya and is currently being undertaken in research using limited but appropriate panels of monoclonal antibodies. It is hoped that findings of this research will inform the use of flow cytometry as an ancillary diagnostic technique in our resource-constrained set up.