Burkitts Leukemia - Leukemia Message Board

lislor · 02-22-2003, 02:53 PM

My 5 year old daughter was just diagnosed with Burkitts Leukemia. I would like info on or talk with someone who has had Burkitts. I have found sites for Burkitts lymphoma but not Burkitts Leukemia. If anyone can help please reply. Thanks Lisa

[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 02-22-2003).]

amlgirl2 · 02-23-2003, 02:22 AM

Hi, so sorry to hear your daughter has been diagnosed with this disease

I found an older post on this board from back in 1999 about Burkitt's leukemia. Their child had been through intensive chemo from it, but was in remission. And they mentioned it's an extremely rare form of leukemia. I never heard of Burkitt's leukemia till I read your post; when I was dianosed, we were told about acute lymphocytic leukemia or acute myelogenous leukemia, the latter being the rarer of the two, which I have.

I'd guess it's, perhaps, and I have no clue, perhaps somewhat similar to the Burkitt's Lymphoma? From what I understand, while that tumor type is rapidly progressive, it's 90% curable with treatment.

Jay Tor · 02-23-2003, 09:30 AM

Hi:

Don't have any specific information on Burkitt's Leukemia yet; will attempt a few searches. Do you know whether there is any other name used for this specific leukemia?

In the meanwhile, here's some reliable general background information on various leukemias:

National Cancer Institute Cancer Research Portfolio
[url="http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/countbyterm.pl?Term=27"]http://researchportfolio.cancer.gov/cgi-bin/countbyterm.pl?Term=27[/url]

Here's more information. Please note that there appear to several different reasons why this disease may appear. For example, the first article discusses this leukemia as an ancillary effect of AIDS, another article discusses this disease in terms of pediatric treatment with no reference to AIDS as cause. My reason for including such articles is so that you can see the range of treatments, disease progression, etc. In my experience, it was better to know even the very unlikely symptoms, than to wonder and imagine the worst.

National Cancer Institute (NCI) CancerNet Database - Main Index

National Cancer Institute (NCI) CancerNet Database - Main Index

Burkitt cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with partial expression of T-cell markers and subclonal chromosome abnormalities in a man with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
Cancer Genet Cytogenet. 1985 Apr 15;16(4):341-7. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/85151738
Berman M; Minowada J; Loew JM; Ramsey MM; Ebie N; Knospe WH

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Abstract: A 45-year-old white male, bisexual, with a 2-year history of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prodrome, developed a Burkitt cell-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Marker studies of marrow blasts show an unusual and possibly unique pattern, in that an unequivocal monoclonal B cell leukemia, having K-IgM with HLA-DR and B cell subset antigen (BA-1) expression, was superimposed with a mature suppressor T cell marker profile (pan-T, mature T, and suppressor/cytotoxic T antigens). The leukemic blasts were totally negative for terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), human T cell leukemia-lymphoma virus (HTLV) p19 antigen, and other immunoglobulin isotypes. Chromosome analysis of marrow cells disclosed that 70% of the cells had 47,XY, + 12,t(8;14)(q24;q32) chromosome complement, and 30% of the cells had a 47,XY, + 12,dup1q + (q22-31),t(8;14)(q24;q32). The consistent finding of the specific chromosome rearrangement (8/14 translocation) in all abnormal cells suggests that the cells were derived from a common precursor. With regard to the partial T cell marker expression, the significance of these markers in B cell leukemia is unclear, as is their relation to the additional chromosome abnormalities that apparently developed in the process of clonal evolution.

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[url="http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/index.html"]http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cancer.gov/index.html[/url]

[url="http://qa.hopkins-aids.edu/forum/view_question.html?section_id=62&id=1139 8&category_id=123"]http://qa.hopkins-aids.edu/forum/view_question.html?section_id=62&id=1139 8&category_id=123[/url]

HiC-COM: a 2-month intensive chemotherapy regimen for children with stage III and IV Burkitt's lymphoma and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
[url="http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cgi-bin/mycite?ExtRef=MEDL/91086949"]http://www.meb.uni-bonn.de/cgi-bin/mycite?ExtRef=MEDL/91086949[/url]

April 96 case diagnosis

Thrombocytopenic purpura and renal failure in a 63 year old man

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The diagnosis is Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia FAB L3 or Burkitt'stype Leukemia. This is a highly aggressive form of leukemia orlymphoma associated with chromosomal abnormalities that juxtapose the c-mycprotooncogene with any of the immunoglobulin gene loci. One such translocationwas found in this particular patient on cytogenetic studies t 8;14(q24.1;q32). His rapidly deteriorating course was a result of rapidlydividing tumor cells causing tumor lysis syndrome.
[url="http://w3.ouhsc.edu/hemaonco/cases/Apr96xdx.htm"]http://w3.ouhsc.edu/hemaonco/cases/Apr96xdx.htm[/url]

Strongly recommend both Scirus and Copernik2001 medical/science search engines when researching obscure medical/scientific information. Consumer search engines usually pull up the most common "hits".

Good luck,
Jay

[This message has been edited by Jay Tor (edited 02-23-2003).]