As we discussed in my previous post, leukaemia is a cancer of the blood producing cells. But, those of you who have leukaemia or know someone who have someone having leukaemia may know that there are several types of leukaemia. There are two major categories of leukaemia. They are,
1. Acute Leukaemias
2. Chronic Leukaemias
The above classification is done according to the speed of the evolution of the disease. In acute leukaemias the changes in the cells occur very rapidly. So the dividing cells have very small amount of time to differentiate. Therefore the cells found in acute leukaemias are mainly those belonging to the initial steps of the maturation process. Those cells in the initial process of dividing are called blast cells. In chronic leukaemias the changes occur slowly over years. So the cells have more time to differentiate, but still the cells are not normal in structure or in function.
These two Types of Leukaemias are further classified as following.
1. Acute Leukaemias
a. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia – As the name implies the predominant cells in this category are lymphoblasts.
b. Acute Myeloblastic Leukaemia – The prominent cells are cells in the myeloid lineage.
2. Chronic Leukaemias
a. Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia – Lymphocytes are predominant cells.
b. Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia – Cells in the myeloid lineage predominate.
French American British Classification of Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia
1. L1- Small round blast
2. L2- Large pleomorphic blast
3. L3- Very large blasts with vacuolated cytoplasm
French American British Classification of Acute myeloid Leukaemia
1. M1- No differentiation
2. M2- Minimal differentiation
3. M3- promyelocytic
4. M4- Myelomonocytic
5. M5- Monocytic
6. M6- Erythroid
7. M7- Megakaryocytic
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