MARROW HISTOMORPHOLOGY AND CLINICAL STAGING OF CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC-LEUKEMIA - A RARE DISEASE IN INDIA - EXPERIENCE WITH 26 CASES

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is a relatively uncommon hemopoietic mali gnancy in the Indian subcontinent. We have made an attempt to correlat e the morphology of the marrow with staging and clinical course of the disease in 26 cases. Four out of 6 cases in Stage A showed a nodular/ interstitial marrow pattern, while 18 out of 20 cases of stage B and C demonstrated a mixed/diffuse involvement of marrow. Cases showing a n odular/interstitial pattern had a relatively benign clinical course ev en without chemotherapy, while patients with diffuse/mixed marrow patt ern required chemotherapy. Trephine histological pattern was found to be a good prognosticator and was useful in segregating cases requiring chemotherapy from those which do not.