Genetic Profile of Leukemia
The presenting age and white count are prognosis predictors, but more important is the morphological examination of bone marrow aspirate. The leukemia must be differentiates between ALL and AML and requires that the bone marrow smear undergoes cytochemical staining for distinguishing lymphoid and myeloid blasts. To further classify the leukemia, the blasts undergo immunophenotypic classification that measures the expression of cytoplasmic and surface antigens, giving distinction between B-cell, early, pre-B-cell, pre-B-cell, or T-cell leukemia.