Which are the leukaemic cells?

Two features are known about acute myeloid leukaemia in man: (1) the long time-scale from identifiable leukaemogenic stimulus and onset of the clinical disease and (2) the successful induction and duration of long clinical remission. These indicate three probabilities: First, that the target cell for leukaemogenetic insult (in AML) is the pluripotent stem cell; second, that the leukaemic stem line is a small minority population within the total leukaemic cell mass; third, when the leukaemic stem line is not greatly exceeding the normal stem cell numbers, its proliferation may be still under partial control.