Epidemic Acute Leukemia

Epidemics of neoplastic disease in man have often been the clue to the recognition of environmental oncogenic factors (lung cancer among uranium ore miners, bladder cancer among aniline-dye workers, myelocytic leukemias among atomic-bombing survivors and lung cancer among cigarette smokers, to name but a few examples). Acute leukemia is known to evolve in some patients with bone-marrow damage induced by radiation, and has been reported after spontaneous and drug-induced hypoplasia. Acute leukemic syndromes appear with regularity in polycythemia vera, and are the common method of termination of chronic myelocytic leukemia.A new syndrome of acute leukemia has recently been recognized . . .