Citogenética no diagnóstico da Leucemia Linfocítica Aguda em crianças - uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Leukemia represents a group of malignant neoplasms derived from hematopoietic cells. This disease always starts in the bone marrow, where the blood cells are produced, and later invade the peripheral blood, which can reach several organs of the lymphohematopoetic system of the affected patient. Leukemia is the most common malignant disease in childhood, accounting for approximately 30% of cancer cases in children. In Brazil, there are around 12,000 cases of leukemia per year with a total of 5500 deaths, representing the eighth most frequent type of cancer in the Brazilian population. Acute lymphocytic leukemia accounts for about 80% of cases of leukemia in children, with an incidence of 1: 25,000 individuals aged 0 to 14 years. The most frequent age group is between 2 and 5 years, with a higher incidence for males and whites. In Brazil, in every 10 to 15 cases of cancer in children under 15 years of age, 4 are ALL. Several criteria can be adopted to classify acute leukemias, such as cell morphology, cytochemistry, immunophenotyping, and cytogenetic study. The cytogenetics allows a more detailed analysis, which allows to detect the chromosomal alterations of the leukemic cells, these alterations will aid in the diagnosis, the classification, the characterization of different stages, the evaluation of the remission and the prognosis of these neoplasias. From this work it is possible to demonstrate the importance of the cytogenetic study in the diagnosis and in the identification of prognostic factors of pediatric patients with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.