[The prognostic value of measuring cell size in acute childhood leukemia (author's transl)]

Prior to treatment we studied leukemia cell diameters in bone marrows of 89 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 26 children with myeloblastic leukemia (AML). Patients were treated according to the West-Berlin protocol. The median cell diameter (+/- S) in ALL measures 11,3 (+/- 1,1)mu, in AML 15,3 (+/- 1,1)mu. Both forms of leukemia show some overlapping of cell diameters in the range of 13,8--14,3 mu. with ALL, no difference is shown in the cell diameters of those who remained in complete remission or went into relapse. Likewise, there is no significant difference in cell-diameter, when correlating them to the following parameters: initial peripheral leucocyte count, acid phosphatase- and PAS-reaction, T-cellmarkers. The risk of relapse is the same in patients with more than 20% macrolymphoblasts (diameter greater than 12mu) and in those less than 20% macrolymphoblasts. In 11 patients with ALL cellmeasuring was performed during the first hematological relapse. The median cell-diameter in 10 of these cases is higher than in the initial bone marrow.