Prognostic factors in acute lymphoid leukaemia of childhood. II. Cell surface markers.

Monoclonal sera have been used to determine the surface phaenotype of leukaemic cells during the last three years. Bone-marrow specimens of 57 children with recently diagnosed acute lymphoid leukaemia were examined; four cases were classified as T-cell leukaemia, 2 cases as B-cell leukaemia, in 37 cases cALLa was positive and fourteen children were classified as O-cell type, based on the absence of markers. Analysis of symptom-free survival revealed a very poor prognosis in B-cell leukaemia; there was no significant difference between the remaining groups. Within the cALLa positive cases L1 exhibited a markedly more favourable prognosis than L2.