Familial chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was previously documented in a father and 4 of his 5 offspring. Follow-up studies revealed spontaneous regression of the disease in 1 patient and shifts in the clinical patterns in the other patients; the unaffected sibling developed lung adenocarcinoma. Cell surface analysis showed that 2 of these patients shared a common surface immunoglobulin profile with mu- and delta-type heavy chains and kappa-type light chains, whereas a 3d sibling with CLL had elevated mu- and kappa-chains. The patient with spontaneous disease remission had a perturbation in the percentage of cells bearing these same markers, consistent with a subclinical persistence of her lympho-proliferative process. Immunogenetic markers were associated with the occurrence of CLL, but these B-cell alloantigens were not linked to HLA. Two patients had abnormalities of chromosome 12 in B- but not T-cells: One had trisomy 12; the other had a mixture of dicentrics and translocations involving the same chromosome.