The aplastic presentation of childhood leukaemia: a feature of common-ALL

Transient pancytopenia preceded the onset of acute leukaemia in eight of 360 (2%) of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) but did not occur in 70 cases of acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia. The patients developed overt leukaemia within 5-38 weeks of first presentation with features of marrow failure. Immunological classification of blast cells was performed in six of the eight patients and all had phenotype of common-ALL (c-ALL). We conclude that the sydnrome of pre-leukaemia aplasia in childhood is a feature of c-ALL.