Amoeboid movement configuration in tumour cells of bone marrow smears from patients with leukaemia. Incidence and significance.

The incidence of amoeboid movement configuration (AMC), a cell shape suggestive of cell locomotion at the moment of fixation, has been studied in the tumour cells of bone marrow smears from leukaemia patients at the time of diagnosis. The groups of patients with CML (n = 8), ALL (n = 5) and CLL (n = 9) were small, and the incidences of AMC were close to those found in the corresponding cell lines from healthy probands. In 39 patients with AML, the incidence of AMC was higher than in the other cell lines investigated. A positive skew distribution of AMC values and a positive significant correlation between incidence of AMC were found at the time of diagnosis and subsequent survival of the patients with AML, in spite of differences in treatment. It is suggested that this positive correlation may be due to an immune reaction of the patients against their tumour cells.