Lymphocyte markers in childhood ALL: the lack of correlation with prognosis

Presentation blast cells from 39 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were studied for T- or B-lymphocyte characteristics. Eleven patients had blasts with T-cell phenotype and one child had B-cell leukaemia. The rest belonged to the non-T, non-B group. Clinical features were similar in the T-cell and non-T, non-B cell group, including the initial WBC count and the presence of mediastinal mass. Although patients with T-cell leukaemia fared worse than those in the non-T, non-B group, the difference in survival was not statistically significant. These data are not in accordance with the findings of most other groups and are thought to stem from the chance occurrence of relatively low initial WBC counts in the T-cell group.