Lymphocyte surface receptors in childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia.

B and T lymphocyte surface receptors were studied in the bone marrow and peripheral blood of 16 patients with childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia. T cell surface receptors were identified on the blasts of one patient. Increased percentages of T or B cell surface receptors were not found in the bone marrow of the other 15 patients. There was a negative correlation between the percentage of pathologic cells in the peripheral blood and the percentage of cells with T and B surface receptors. The results of this study indicate that childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia is a heterogeneous disease in terms of lymphocyte surface receptors and that the pathologic cells of the majority of patients with this disease cannot be identified as being of thymic or non-thymic origin.