Abstract
The effect of chemotherapy on dysplasia of bone marrow cells was studied in 10 patients with hypoplastic leukemia. Patients were all previously untreated, and ages ranged from 40 to 81 years old (median: 70). Male to female ratio was 1:1. Morphologic features studied were pseudo-Pelger neutrophils, absence or decreased Azur granules in the neutrophils, multinucleated erythroblasts, megaloblastoid changes in erythroblasts, micromegakaryocytes, mononuclear megakaryocytes and megakaryocytes with multiple small separated nuclei. Although 8 patients with chemotherapeutic effect showed little evidence of dysplasia, 2 patients without chemotherapeutic effect showed severe dysplasia in two or three blood cell lineages. These findings are thought to indicate that a part of hypoplastic leukemia develops from myelodysplasia with hypoplastic marrow. The establishment of an optimal treatment for hypoplastic leukemia should be studied by stratification of bone marrow dysplasia.
