[The prognostic significance of parameters of bone marrow blast cell proliferation in patients with acute leukemia]

Percentage of bone marrow blasts in S-phase (S%) in acute leukemia patients was evaluated by 3H-thymidine autoradiography or Feulgen cytophotometry at the initial acute period before chemotherapy. In acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) patients who showed complete remission (CR) S% was 8.6 +/- 1.8% versus 2.1 +/- 0.4% in cases without CR (p less than 0.001). In acute non-lymphoid leukemia (ANLL) the corresponding values were 11.4 +/- 1.4% and 8.3 +/- 1.8%, p greater than 0.05. A negative correlation was observed between S% and the duration of CR in ALL: S% was 13.0 +/- 0.7% in CR, more than 12 months, and 6.9 +/- 1.1% in CR less than 12 months (p less than 0.01). The duration of life also correlated negatively with S%. In ALL S% was 9.5 +/- 1.5% for patients with survival less than 12 months versus 6.2 +/- 0.6% for patients with survival more than 12 months (p less than 0.05). In ANLL the difference (10.3 +/- 1.6% and 6.8 +/- 1.2, respectively) was not significant (p greater than 0.05). Thus in ALL the correlations between S% and the probability to achieve CR is positive, while the correlations between S% and survival and remission duration are negative. In ANLL these correlations are statistically insignificant.