Acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnostic study of choice

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1], Shyam Patel [2]

Overview

The diagnostic study of choice for acute lymphoblastic lymphoma is bone marrow biopsy.

The diagnostic study of choice for acute lymphoblastic lymphoma is bone marrow biopsy.^[1]^[2]
A bone marrow biopsy must show 20% or greater blasts of lymphoid immunophenotype^[3]
This diagnostic criteria is very similar to that of acute myeloid leukemia.^[4]

On bone marrow biopsy the following result is a confirmation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia:

The various investigations must be performed in the following order:

↑ Thomas X, Le QH, Danaïla C, Lhéritier V, Ffrench M (October 2002). “Bone marrow biopsy in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia: morphological characteristics and contribution to the study of prognostic factors”. Leuk. Res. 26 (10): 909–18. PMID 12163052.
↑ Kröber SM, Greschniok A, Kaiserling E, Horny HP (April 2000). “Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: correlation between morphological/immunohistochemical and molecular biological findings in bone marrow biopsy specimens”. MP, Mol. Pathol. 53 (2): 83–7. PMC 1186910. PMID 10889907.
↑ Chiaretti S, Zini G, Bassan R (2014). “Diagnosis and subclassification of acute lymphoblastic leukemia”. Mediterr J Hematol Infect Dis. 6 (1): e2014073. doi:10.4084/MJHID.2014.073. PMC 4235437. PMID 25408859.
↑ Terwilliger T, Abdul-Hay M (2017). “Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a comprehensive review and 2017 update”. Blood Cancer J. 7 (6): e577. doi:10.1038/bcj.2017.53. PMC 5520400. PMID 28665419.