mast cell leukemia

Acute mast cell leukemia is extremely aggressive and has a grave prognosis.

Total serum tryptase is elevated in mast cell leukemia.

Values of several hundred micro g/L are characteristic of mast cell leukemia.

Plasma and urinary histamine levels are frequently elevated in mast cell leukemia.

Although splenectomy has led to brief responses in patients with mast cell leukemia no firm conclusions as to the efficacy of this treatment are possible.

In a small proportion of cases, acute mast cell leukemia may evolve from a more progressive form of systemic mastocytosis.

If the mast cells represent less than 10% of blood cells, the tumor is called "aleukemic" mast cell leukemia.

In the cases observed, mast cell sarcoma terminated quickly as mast cell leukemia; one of the most aggressive human cancers.

Acute mast cell leukemia is a rapidly progressive disorder with leukemic mast cells in blood and in large numbers in marrow.

The typical cutaneous mast cell infiltrates of urticaria pigmentosa are usually not present before, during, or after diagnosis in patients who have mast cell leukemia.

Measurement of histidine carboxylase in the marrow cells of patients with mast cell leukemia is a very sensitive marker of mast cells.

The diagnosis of acute mast cell leukemia by the WHO criteria includes the requirement for a prevalence of 20% neoplastic mast cells in marrow and 10% in blood.

Immunotherapy with anti-IgE immunoglobulin raised in sheep resulted in a transient decrease in the numbers of circulating mast cells in one patient with mast cell leukemia.

For example, urticaria pigmentosa is a condition that arises from mast cells and is occasionally associated with mast cell leukemia; cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is often confined to the skin throughout its course.

Studies of a mast cell leukemia cell line expressing substantial amounts of abnormal transcripts of this gene indicated that this gene may play an important role in the final stages of mast cell development.

Mast cell leukemia is an extremely aggressive subtype of acute myeloid leukemia that usually occurs de novo but can, rarely, evolve from transformation of chronic myeloid leukemia into the more aggressive acute myeloid leukemia.