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HEREDITARY FACTORS IN HUMAN LEUKÆMIA: A REPORT OF FOUR CASES OF LEUKÆMIA IN A FAMILY
Author(s) -
GORDON R. D.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
australasian annals of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0571-9283
DOI - 10.1111/imj.1963.12.3.202
Subject(s) - medicine , death certificate , incidence (geometry) , leukemia , autopsy , pediatrics , cause of death , pathology , disease , physics , optics
SUMMARY Four cases of leukæmia occurring in a family during two generations are described. The diagnosis in three is supported by full hæmatological and autopsy data. These patients were a female, aged 47 years, and a male, aged 29 years, both suffering from myeloblastic leukæmia, and a female, aged 58 years, suffering from acute leukæmia of uncertain type. In the fourth case, that of a female, aged two and a half years, evidence consists only of a death certificate bearing the diagnosis of acute leukæmia. Though a definite diagnosis of the variety of leukæmia has been made in only two cases, the result is already at variance with the reported high incidence of the lymphatic type in familial cases. The dissimilarity in age of these four patients may be contrasted with other reported families, in which the leukæmia tended to occur at about the same age in affected siblings. The importance of hereditary factors in leukæmia in man is undecided, as is the genetic relationship of leukæmia to other neoplasias and blood disorders. Chromosomal abnormalities affecting all body cells have been described in association with chronic lymphatic leukæmia in the same patient and with acute leukæmia in the same sibship; this observation suggests a role for altered genetic structure in at least some cases of leukæmia, and chromosome studies are a promising tool in research into leukæmogenesis.