Hematologic Malignancies I (Part 1) Flashcards
Give examples of malignancies that are well understood, can be definitely diagnosed, are treatable, and will kill your pt if you miss them.
CML
Hairy Cell Leukemia
Most pediatric ALLs
AML with t(15, 17)
Give examples of malignancies that are chronic and manageable but can blow up in your face.
CLL
Essential thrombocythemia
some MDSs
Give examples of malignancies that have a terrible prognosis but have a slightly better one if treated.
Sezary syndrome
t-AMLs
Give examples of malignancies that are poorly treatable and are not well understood.
diffuse large B cell lymphoma
peripheral T cell lymphoma NOS
Describe the process of how hematologic malignancies are diagnosed.
- clinician recognizes possible malignancy: leukocytosis, pancytopenia, lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly
- clinician orders CBC, periph smear, imaging
- Clinician obtains tissue (BM, periph blood, lymph node) for path/Dx
- Pathologist makes initial assessment and orders confirmatory tests (i.e. FISH, flow cyt, immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics, PCR)
- Pathologist makes Dx
Workup of any hematological disease begins with a review of ______
the peripheral blood smear
What are the 5 characteristics of blasts that Dr. Strom noted in lecture?
- big cell
- inc nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio
- immature chromatin
- big or multiple nucleoli
- a bunch of cells that look a like
*a cell does not have to have all of these characteristics to be considered a blast
What is a “leuko-erythroblastic (myelophthisic) picture”?
Stuff normally in BM that is found in periphery
What are examples of cell morphologies that are present in the BM but not (normally) in the periphery?
nucleated red cells giant platelet myelocyte blast basophillic stippling
Describe how a BM biopsy is taken.
- sterile field
- Inject local anesthetic
- draw 0.5 cc thick bloodly fluid containing bony spicules
- draw an addnl 2-20 cc of more hemodilute fluid for addnl studies
- insert needle at a very different angle to draw out core biopsy
T or F: the core biopsy is empty of blood-forming elements if it is extracted from the same site that the aspirate was obtained.
T
T or F: the local anestheic used to take a BM biopsy will numb the surface and center of the bone.
F: will only numb the surface of the bone
Why do you get 3 samples when you take a BM biopsy?
The first sample is minimally hemodilute and can be examined/studied more accurately under the microscope.
The 2nd sample is more hemodilute and can be used for studies such as flow cytometry in which the conc of the cells does not affect the results.
And the core biopsy is for histological studies
In general, what does a pathologist do when a clinician sends them a BM biosy to study in which they have requested with every test to be run on the sample.
they do all those tests
or
they take an initial look at the aspirate to refine the differential and/or order only the appropriate tests i
What does the pathologist report back with to the clinician after the BM biopsy has been examined?
- describe what any abnormal cells look like
- describe the immunopathy of any abnormal cells
- describe the genotype of any abnormal cells
- make a Dx (or not)
The aspirated material from the BM will contain ______
tiny spicules or bone fragments or clots
Blasts normally make up ___% of cells in the BM
less than 5%
What should the ration of myeloid cells : erythroid precursors be?
2:1 to 5:1 (lots more myeloid cells = granulocytes and monocytes)
What 5 characteristics are pathologists looking for when examining a BM sample?
- specimen adequacy
- estimate of cellularity
- myeloid : erythroid ratio
- iron stores esitmate
- any abnormal cell type
How is the normal % cellularity of a core BM biopsy determined?
100 - age
*ie 50 y/o should have 50% or a bit less of cellularity and the rest is normal fat
What lineages should be present in a good core biopsy?
erythroid, myeloid, and megakaryocyte
Describe where iron stores are normally found in the bone marrow.
in BM histiocytes (macrophages)
What are the 5 B cell markers?
(>10…)
- CD45
- CD79a
- CD20
- IgG kappa
- IgG lambda
What are the 5 T cell markers?
(<10…)
- CD45
- CD3 (TcR)
- CD7
- CD4
- CD8
What is a hapten?
site where Ab binds
How are B and T cell markers detected?
with monoclonal Abs specific for each Ag/marker