THE PATHOLOGY OF THE CHRONIC LYMPHOID LEUKEMIAS

The chronic lymphoid leukaemias, though they all possess relatively ma ture lymphoid phenotypes, are a diverse group of diseases at the clini cal, morphological, immunophenotypical, and biological levels, General ly accepted entities within this category include B-cell chronic lymph ocytic leukaemia of classical and mixed-cell types, B-cell and T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia, hairy-cell leukaemia and hairy-cell variant, splenic lymphoma with circulating villous lymphocytes, large granular lymphocytic leukaemia, adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma syndrome, and leukaemic phases of malignant lymphomas of both B-cell and T-cell type s. Recent advances have helped to differentiate these diseases, allowi ng the development of more specific therapy and more accurate prognost ication, In this article, we review the pathological aspects of these diseases.