Hairy cell leukemia

Uncommon card · No. 174170

Hairy cell leukemia is an uncommon hematological malignancy characterized by an accumulation of abnormal B lymphocytes. The incidence of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is 0.28-0.30 cases per 100,000 people in Europe and the United States. The prevalence is approximately 3.12 cases per 100,000 in Europe, with a lower prevalence in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. HCL has an indolent course, but patients frequently relapse. Despite this, with treatment, life expectancy is usually the same as that for the general population. HCL was originally described as histiocytic leukemia, malignant reticulosis, or lymphoid myelofibrosis in publications dating back to the 1920s. The disease was formally named leukemic reticuloendotheliosis, and its characterization was significantly advanced by Bertha Bouroncle and colleagues at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1958. Its common name, which was coined in 1966, is derived from the "hairy" appearance of the cytoplasmic projections from malignant...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Public domain