Blastic crisis in chronic myelogenous leukaemia in a dog

Abstract

A nine–year old Short–haired German Pointer bitch suffered from chronic myelogenous leukaemia for possibly more than a year. In the terminal stages the blood and bone marrow showed changes compatible with a blastic crisis.

A case of canine myeloid neoplasia

“…These include depression, lethargy, anorexia, anaemia and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Infiltration of neoplastic cells into various body organs is another commonly reported feature with liver, kidney and spleen being the common sites (Meier, 1957;Roscher et al, 1960;Lucke & Sumner-Smith, 1963;Cooper & Watson, 1975). While the possibility of extra-medullary haemopoiesis has to be considered in cases such as this, the diffuse nature of the cellular infiltrate is in contrast to the scattered foci of haemopoietic elements, particularly of the erythroid series, which would be expected in normal haemopoiesis.…”

“…Also shown in Table 2 are the bone marrow findings in acute cases of myeloid neoplasia along with a chronic case (Day 3) which ended with a blast crisis (Day 9) (Pollet et al, 1978). None of the authors whose data are presented in the table mentioned the use of peroxidase staining.…”

“…The data of Rouse et al (1967) are obviously affected by a high number of unidentified cells, and it is possible that this figure could have been reduced by a stain for peroxidase activity. The use of such a stain could therefore, be a valuable aid in diagnostic marrow neoplasia providing that asynchronous maturation of nucleus and cytoplasm, which can be a feature of the acute or blastic form of myeloid neoplasia (Pollet et al, 1978), does not lead to suppression of peroxidase positive granule formulation. Both Meier (1957) and Roscher et al, (1960), while not giving full details of their bone marrow examinations, found peroxidase staining useful in confirming the myelogenous nature of neoplastic cells.…”

“…The main features of these cases were a moderate to severe leucocytosis, spleen and liver enlargement, absent or slight lymphadenopathy, and in some cases, infiltration of neoplastic cells in other organs. Individual reports have included those of Roscher et al (1960); Medway & Rapp (1962); Lucke & Sumner-Smith (1963); Rouse, Osborne & Grunsell (1967); Cameron, Kinard & Johnson (1969); Cooper & Watson (1975); Joiner et al (1976); and Pollet, van Hove & Mattheeuws (1978). In addition, Schalm, Jain & Carroll (1979, briefly described a further 6 cases.…”

“…Most of the cases reported have been acute in that the proportion of immature cells in the bone marrow and peripheral blood have been high. A few cases were classfied as chronic (Joiner et al, 1976;Lucke & Sumner-Smith, 1963;Medway & Rapp, 1962;Pollet et al, 1978), because the majority of myelocytic cells were either band or segmented forms. One of these latter cases terminated in a blast crisis (Pollet et al, 1978).…”