LEUKEMIA

Leukemia is the commonest pediatric malignancy, accounting for ~1/3^rd of all cancers and defined as “malignant clonal proliferation of lymphoid or myeloid pre­cursor cells in bone marrow as well as infiltration of other organs with these cells”.

Depending on the predominant cell line and pre­sentation, these cases are sub-classified as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous or non-lymphoblastic leukemia (AML), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML).

ALL is the commonest leukemia in children (77%), followed by AML (11%), CML (2-3%) and JMML (1-2%). Some remaining cases do not fit classical definition of the any type.

20.2.1